Epochs of History
EDITED BY
EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A.
THE ERA
OF
THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION
F. SEEBOIIM
EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY.
Edited by Rev. G. W. Cox and Charles Sankey. M. A.
Eleven volumes, i6mo, with 41 Maps and Plans. Price per
vol., $1.00. The set, Roxburgh style, gilt top, in box, $11.00.
Troy— Its Legend, History, and Literature. By S. G. W.
Benjamin
The Greeks and the Persians. By G. W. Cox.
The Athenian Empire. By G. W. Cox.
The Spartan and Theban Supremacies. By Charles Sankey.
The Macedonian Empire. By A. M. Curteis.
Early Rome. By W. Ihne.
Rome and Carthage. By R. Bosworth Smith.
The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla. By A. H. Beesley.
The Roman Triumvirates. By Charles Merivale.
The Early Empire. By W. Wolfe Capes.
The Age of the Antonines. By W. Wolfe Capes.
EPOCHS OF MODERN HISTORY.
Edited by Edward E. Morris. Eighteen volumes, iCmo,
with 77 Maps, Plans, and Tables. Price p<.r vol., $1.00.
The set, Roxburgh style, gilt top, in box, $18.00.
The Beginning of the Middle Ages. By R. W. Church.
The Normans in Europe. By A. H. Johnson.
The Crusades By G. W. (ox.
The Early Plantagenets. By Wra. Stubbs.
Edward III. By W. Warburton.
The Houses of Lancaster and York. By James Gairdner.
The Era of the Protestant Revolution. By Frederic Seebohm.
Th.-: Early Tudors. By C. E. Moberly.
The Age of Elizabeth. By M. Creighton.
The Thirty Years War, 181«— 1648. By S. R. Gardiner.
The Puritan Revolution. By S. R. Gardiner.
The Fall of the Stuarts. By Rdward Hale.
The English Restoration and Louis XIV. By Osmond Airy.
The Age of Anne. By Edward K. Morris.
The Early Hanoverians. Bv Edward E. Morris.
Frederick the Great. By F. W. Longman.
The French Revolution and First Empire. By W. O'Connor
Morris. Appendix by Andrew D. White.
The Epoch of Reform, 1830-1S50. By Justin Macarthy.
THE COMMERCE OF CHRISTENDOM
MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.
Woollen
Linen
Silk
Blue Supplied with Wool from England, Spain
and Hesse, and Corn from France and the
ports on the Baltic — Exporting Woollen
goods all over Christendom.
Green In close connection tcith the Woollen.
Y~ellow In Italy. Sicily, Catalonia, Lyons, dkc.
These Districts supplied tcith Woollen
goods from the north by sea and by the
Overland Commerce through Germany to
Venice.
THE ERA
OF THE
PROTESTANT REVOLUTION
BY
FREDERIC SEEBOHM
AUTHOR OF
TUB OXFORD REFORMERS— COLET, ERASMUS, AND MORE*
SECOND EDITION
With Notes on Bocks in English relating to the Reformation,
bj Geo. P. Fisher, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical
History in Yale College, author of "History
of the Reformation," &c.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,
1890.
MAi % 7 &04
1 KB 1905
SUMMARY.
PART I.
STATE OF CHRISTENDOM
CHAPTER I.
Introductory.
(a) The Small Extent of Christendom. — Smaller than it once haa
been. The Mohammedan power checked in the West, but .jncroaoh-
ing from the East. Kinship between Christians, Mohammedans,
and Jews, but they hate one another t
(o) The Signs of New Life in Christendom. — Influence of the cru-
saders. Inventions. Fall of Constantinople. Revival of learning.
Printing. . . . . 3
(c) The Widening of Christendom. — Moors driven out of Spain. Dis-
covery of America. New way to East Indies. Men's minds prepared
for great events. 4
(d) The Ne%v Era one of Progress in Civilization. — What civiliza-
tion is. The old Roman civilization. Its main vice Modern
civilization. Its strength. The crisis of the struggle between the
old and the new order of things. Plan of this book. 5
CHAPTER II.
THE POWERS BELONGING TO THE OLD ORDER OP THINGS,
AND GOING OUT.
(a) The Ecclesiastical System. — The Ecclesiastical Empire. Rome
its capital. Independent of the civil power. The monks. Power
of the ecclesiastical system, by its influence over the people, by its
wealth, by the monopoly of learning and political influence, which
all centred in Rome. This Empire will be broken up in the Era 8
[d) The Scholastic System. The learned world talked and wrote in
Latin, and belonged to the clergy. This made learning scholastic,
shackled science, and religion also, and kept them from the com-
mon people. Necessity of mental freedom. The Universities.
Students pass from one to another. The result of this in the days
of Wiclif. Will be repeated in the new Era. The work of the Era 11
vi Summary.
PAGE,
(c) The Feudal System and the Forces which were breaking it up. —
It divided countries into petty lordships. Decay of the feudal
system. Subjection of feudal lords to the Crown. Increasing
power of the Crown. The growth of commerce. Trade of the
Mediterranean. The manufacturing districts. The fisheries. The
commerce of the Hanse towns. Bruges and Antwerp the central
marts of commerce. Lines of maritime, inland, and overland trade.
The towns had mostly got free. Why the towns hated feudalism
and favored the Crown. The feudal peasantry once were more free
than afterwards under the feudal system. Where the central power
was weakest, feudal serfdom lingered longest. The towns and
commerce favoured freedom of the peasantry . . .16
CHAPTER III.
THE MODERN NATIONS WHICH WERE RISING INTO POWER.
(a) Italy. — Italy not a united nation. Rome, according to Machiavelli,
the cause of her disunity. Rome a centre of rottenness. Dante
and Petrarch described her vices. Recent Popes bad men. Alex-
ander VI. and Caesar Borgia. Their crimes. Effect of Papal
wickedness. Main divisions of Italy. Papal States. Venice.
Florence. Milan. Naples. Papal politics the ruin of Italy by
promoting invasion by France and Spain. 22
(b) Germany. — Germany had not yet attained national unity. The
emperor claimed to be Caesar and King of Rome. His claim to
universal empire very shadowy. How elected. The feudal cere-
mony. There were no imperial domains Very little imperial
power. The Emperor Maximilian powerful as head of the Aus-
trian House of Hapsburg. Charles V. powerful because of his Aus-
trian and Spanish dominions. The Diets had no power to enforce
their decrees. The feudal system still prevailed. Subdivision of
lordships by law of inheritance. Constant petty feuds. Lawless-
ness of the knights. The towns of Germany. Their leagues for
mutal defence. Want of a central power to maintain the public
peace. The condition of the peasantry growing harder and harder
for want of a central power. History of the German " Bauer."
Rebellion his only remedy 2J
(c) Spain.— Spain was becoming the first power in Europe. Power of
the nobles. Driven into the north by the Moors. Reconquest of
Spain from the Moors, except Granada which held out. Kingdoms
of Castile and Arragon united under Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain
thenceforth tends to become an absolute monarchy. Conquest of
Granada. Ferdinand's policy to complete Spain on the map. Co-
lumbus. Foreign policy. Royal marriages. Success of these
alliances. Domestic policy. Subjugation of the nobles. The
Inquisition. Banishment of the Jews. Independent policy towards
Rome. Colonial policy. Christianity introduced into the New
World, but slavery with it 35
\d) France. — How all France had grown into one nation. France
claimed Milan, and Naples also This union of all France the re-
sult of the crown being hereditary, primogeniture, and intermarriage
with the royal family. The towns. Final struggle of the Crown
with Burgundy. English conquests at an end. The English wars
had helped to unite the nation and increase the power of the Crown ;
but there were seeds of disunion within. The crown had become
Summary. vil
absolute. Royal taxes without consent of the people. Royal stand-
ing army. The noblesse a privileged untaxed caste. The peasantry
not serfs, but taxed, paying rents, and tithes, and taille. Their
grievances. The middle-class leave the country for the towns. Se-
paration of classes the main vice in French polity. Love of foreign
wars the chief vice in her policy. 41
\f) England. — The English nation had for long been consolidated. The
nobility not a caste. Importance of the middle classes of citizens and
yeomen. The Crown and all classes subject to the laws. The
government a constitutional monarchy, i. e. the king could make no
new laws and levy no taxes without consent of parliament. The
ecclesiastics not altogether Englishmen, but held large possessions.
The Pope also drew revenues from England. The peasantry had got
free from feudal servitude and were becoming a wage-earning class.
Freedom did not necessarily make them materially better off. They
had no share in the government, but there was nothing in the laws
to prevent their getting it. Henry VII. was a Welshman, and
landed in Wales. His throne precarious. Other claimants. Lam-
bert Simnel. Perkin Warbeck. Henry VII. 's foreign policy was
alliance with Spain. Hence the marriage with Catherine of Arragon.
Henry VII. 's domestic policy. His position as regards Parliament.
His minister, Cardinal Morton. Order maintained. Middle class
favoured. The way paved for the union of England and Scotland.
The Welsh finally conciliated, and England's colonial empire begun.
The tomb of Henry VII. 48
CHAPTER IV.
THE NEED OF REFORM AND DANGER OF REVOLUTION.
[a) The Necessity for Reform. — Italy and Germany not yet united na-
tions. The lack of international peace and justice. The serfdom
of the German peasantry still continued. The ecclesiastical and
scholastic systems needed reform. The alternatives were reform or
f revolution. ..... .....
[b) The Train laid for Revolution. — Chiefly among the German peas-
antry. Their ecclesiastical as well as feudal grievances. Contem-
porary testimony. Successful rebellion of the Swiss in 1315, and the
peasants of the Graubund 1441 — 71. Unsuccessful rebellion of the
Lollards and Hussite wars 1415 — 1436. Threats of rebellion in Fran-
conia in 1476. The Bundschuh. Rebellion in Kempten 1492. In
Elsass 1493. Both again in 1501-2. In the Black Forest 1512-13,
under Joss Fritz. In 1514 in Wurtemberg and the Austrian Alps.
The Swabian league of nobles against the peasants. Far and wide
the train was laid for future revolution. The train laid not where
serfdom was at its worst, but where freedom was nearest in sight.
viii Summary*
PART II.
THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER I.
REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND REFORM AT FLORENCE.
PASS
\a) The Revivers of Learning at Florence. — The Republic of Flor-
ence. Power in the hands of the Medici. Cosmo de' Medici 1389
-1464. Lorenzo de' Medici 1448-1492. Florence the Modern Athens.
Michael Angelo. The Platonic Academy, Ficino, Politian, and
Pico della Mirandola. Semi pagan tendencies of the revival of
learning. 68
(6) The great Florentine Reformer, Girolatno Savonarola, 1452-1498.
— He becomes a religious reformer. Made Prior of St. Mark at
Florence. Stirs up in the people the spirit of reform and freedom
Death of Lorenzo and Innocent VIII. The French Invasion of
Italy. The Medici expelled. The republic restored. Savonarola's
reforms. He becomes fanatical. Is martyred by order of Pope
Alexander VI 71
(c) Savonarola's Influence on the Revivers of Learning. — His in-
fluence over Pico, Politian, and Ficino. ...... 74
(d) Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527. — Secretary to the Republic at
Florence, and then serves the Medici. Writes ' The Prince,' in
which he codifies the vicious maxims of Italian policy since called
' Machiavellian.' .... 75
CHAPTER II.
THE OXFORD REFORMERS.
(a) The Spirit of Revival of Learning and Reform is carried from
Italy to Oxford. — Distinction and connection between the revival
of learning and Religious reform. Both against the Scholastic
system. The reform movement crushed at Florence. Revivers of
learning at Oxford. Grocyn and Linacre go to Italy, and return to
Oxford. John Colet does the same. Colet unites the spirit of the
new learning and religious reform. ...... 76
(b) Colet, More and Erasmus join in fellow-work. — Lectures on St.
Paul's Epistles at Oxford. Attacks the schoolmen. He urges
also the need of ecclesiastical reform. Colet attracts disciples and
fellow workers. Thomas More. Erasmus. Early life of Erasmus.
He comes to Oxford. Makes friends with Colet and Thomas More.
Comes under Colet's influence 78
(c) The Oxford students are scattered till the Accession of Henry
I 'III. — Exactions of Empson and Dudley. More offends Henry
VII. The circle of Oxford students formed again in London. . 82
(d) On the accession of Henry VIII. they commence their felloio-
■work. Hopes on the accession of Henry VIII. The Oxford stu-
dents in Court favour. Erasmus Greek professor at Cambridge. 84
(e) Erasmus writes his ' I 'raise of Folly.' — Satire on the scholastic
theologians, monks, and popes. ....... 85
Summary. ix
\f) Colet founds St. Paul's School. — It is a school of the new learning,
and excites the malice of men of the old school. His sermon on
Ecclesiastical Reform. Escapes from a charge of heresy. . . 86
\g\ The Continental Wars of Henry I 'III., 1511-1512. — The Holy
Alliance against France. Henry VIII. 's first campaign. Wolsey.
Julius II. succeeded by Leo X. Henry persists in invading France.
Gains the Battle of the Spurs. Scotch invasion of England. Battle
of Flodden. Henry VIII. now joins France against Spain. Louis
XII. succeeded by Francis I. Francis I invades Italy and re-
covers Milan. Again Spain and England combine against France.
These wars of kings against the interests of Europe, and tended to
make kings absolute. The example of France. Narrow escape of
England. Colet preaches against the wars. Erasmus is against
them too, and also More. . 88
Ut, The kind of Reform aimed at by the Oxford Reformers. — Eras-
mus made a Councillor of Prince Charles. More drawn into Henry
VIII. 's service. The 'Christian Prince ' of Erasmus. More's
' Utopia.' They entered thoroughly into the spirit of modern
civilization. The character of their religious reform. The New
Testament of Erasmus. The kind of ecclesiastical reform urged by
the Oxford Reformers. They aimed at a broad and tolerant Church,
and were likely to oppose schism. ... . 93
CHAPTER III.
THE WITTENBERG REFORMERS.
(a) Martin Luther becomes, a Reformer. — Luther born 1483. Sent to
school and to the University of Erfurt. Becomes a monk. Adopts
the theology of St. Augustine, and in this differed from the Oxford
Reformers. He removes to Wittenberg. Visits Rome. Reads the
New Testament of Erasmus and finds out the difference in their
theology. 97
(l>) The Sale of Indulgences. — Leo X.'s scheme to get money by in-
dulgences. Offers princes a share in the spoil. Erasmus writes
bitterly against it, but pope and kings will not listen. . . 100
(c) Luther' s Attack on Indulgences. — Tetzel cornea near Wittenberg
selling Indulgences. Luther's theses against indulgences. He is
backed by the Elector of Saxony. Philip Melanchthon comes to
Wittenberg. 101
(d) The Election of Charles V. to the Empire (1510'). — Death of Maxi-
milian. Candidates for the Empire. Charles V. elected through
the influence of the Elector of Saxony. Extent of Charles V.'s
rule 103
\e) Luther's Breach with Rome. — Luther finds himself a Hussite.
Rumoured Papal Bull against Luther. Luther's pamphlet to the
nobility of the German nation, and another on the ' Babylonish
Captivity of the Church.' I he Bull arrives. .... 106
\f) The Elector of Saxony consults Erasmus, Dec 6, 1520. — Aleander,
the Pope's nuncio, tries to win over the Elector of Saxony. The
Elector asks advice of Erasmus. The advice of Erasmus. The
Elector follows it, and urges moderation on Luther. . . . 108
\g) Luther burns the Pope's Bull, Dec. 10, 1520, notwithstanding the
cautions of the Elector. Erasmus fears revolution. . . .111
x Summary.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CRISIS. — REFORM OR REVOLUTION. — REFORM REFUSED
BY THE RULING TOWERS.
PAGB
{a) Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen. — The Robin Hoods
of Germany side with Luther. Ulrich von Hutten. His satire
upon Rome. His German popular rhymes against Rome. De-
mands freedom. Small chances of Reform 113
(b) The Diet 0/ 11 'onus meets 28th January, 1521.— * Agenda ' at the
Diet of Worms : to stop private war, to settle disputes, to provide
central power in the Emperor's absence, and to take notice of the
books of Martin Luther. No hope for the peasantry. Brief from
Rome about Luther. The Electors hesitate to sanction the edict
against Luther. Hutten adjures the Emperor not to yield to Rome.
Luther summoned to Worms 115
(c) Luther's Journey to II 'onus C1521). Luther's Antithesis of Christ
and Antichrist. Luther sets off for Worms. His journey. Popular
excitement. Luther's heroic firmness. He enters Worms. . 119
(d) Luther before the Diet. — Luther's first appearance before the Diet.
He asks fur time to consider his answer. They give him till the
next day. Excitement in Worms. Luther's second appearance
before the Diet. His speech. Repeats his speech in Latin. Re-
fuses to recant. '1 he Emperor decides against Luther. '1 hreats of
Revolution. The Electors urge delay. Luther leaves Worms.
What Luther did at Worms for Germany and for Christendom. 127
I,- 1 Edict Against Luther.— Pears of the papal party. Rumours of
Luther's capture. The Elector of Saxony leaves Worms. Treaty
between Charles V. and the Pope. The Edict issued against Lu-
ther. Letter from Valdez, the Emperor's secretary. . . .129
(/) Political Reasons for the Decision at U <»-w.r.— Rivalship between
Spain and France. Intrigues of princes. France the common
enemy of the Pope, Spain, and England. Reform refused by the
ruling powers from political motives 132
CHAPTER V.
REVOLUTION.
(«) The Prophets of Revolution.— Popular feeling against the Edict.
Luther in the Wartburg. In his absence wilder spirits take the lead.
The prophets of Zwickau. Luther comes back to Wittenberg and
confronts the prophets. His common sense prevails. The prophets
driven from Wittenberg. Munzer becomes the prophet of the peas-
antry. 135
(b) The End of Sickingen and Hutten.— The Council of Regency
under the Elector of Saxony strives to avert the storm, but meets
with opposition. Franz von Sickingen takes to the sword, but is
defeated and killed. Hutten's death. The peasantry get nothing
from the knights 138
\c) The Peasants' War. — Carlstadt and Munzer stir up rebellion. In-
surrection of the peasantry in Swabia. Their twelve articles. Not
likely to be granted by either Pope, nobles, or Luther. Swabian
peasants crushed in April, 1525. Insurrection on the Neckar,
April, 1525. The peasants' revenge for Swabian slaughters. The
retaliation of the nobles, May, 1525. Insurrection in Francnnia.
Revolution in the towns of Franconia. Diary of a citizen of Roth-
Summary. xi
. _ PAGE
enburg. Insurrection in Elsass and Lorraine put down, May, 1525.
Insurrection in Bavaria, the Tyrol, and Carinthia. Miinzer heads
an insurrection in Thuringia. His mad proclamation. Death of
Miinzer. The attitude of Luther during the Peasants' War. Who
was really to blame ? Death of the Elector of Saxony, May, 1525. 14a
\d) J he Sack of Rome, 1527.— Alliance of the Pope and the Emperor
against France. Henry VIII. joins it. Pope Leo X. dies, 1521.
Adrian VI. and Clement VII. Pope, 1523. Duke of Bourbon joins
the league against France. Francis 1. crosses the Alps, but made
prisoner at the battle of Pavia. Rupture between Char.es V. and
the Pope. Result of the Diet of Spires. March of a German
army on Rome. The Sack of Rome. Result of the Papal policy. 154
PART III.
RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT
REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER I.
REVOLTS FROM ROME,
(i.) IN SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY.
\a) Meaning of Revolt from Rome.— A political change. The Teutonic
nations revolted ; the Romanic nations remained under Koine. In
some nations there was a national revolt ; in some divided action
and civil wars joa
(/'j 734* Revolt in Switzerland. — Switzerland divided into cantons.
Civil power vested in the people. Ulrich Zwingle the Swiss re-
former, settles at Zurich. Zurich assumes to itself ecclesiastical
powers. Berne does the same soon after. Civil war. Peace of
Cappel. Characte- of Zwingle. Luther quarrels with Zwingle. 163
[c) The Revolt in Germany. — The freedom of the German peasantry
postponed for ten generations. The Diet of Spires, 1526, left each
state to take its own course about Luther. Hence arose Protestant
states, with national churches free from Rome, while others re-
mained Catholic. The second Diet of Spires, 1529, reversed the
decision, notwithstanding the protest of the Protestant princes.
Civil w.ir averted by the Turks' attack on Vienna. The Turks
driven hack. Charles V. turned again upon German heretics. Diet
of Augsburg. The ' Augsburg Confession.' Protestant princes
form the league of Schmalkald for mutual defence. Civil war post-
poned during Luther's life, but it begins soon after his death.
Spanish conquest of Germany. Revolt of the Protestant princes.
Defeat of Charles V.; his abdication and death. The Peace of
Augsburg (1555) and its rule of mock toleration. Evils brought
upon Germany by 1 harles V.'s policy. ..... n) The new Order of the Society of Jesus. — Ignatius Loyola, a Span-
ish knight. He is wounded in 1521. Resolves to become a general
of an army of saints instead of soldieis. His austerities. Resolves
to found the ' Order of Jesus.' To prepare himself, studies at the
University of Paris. At Paris meets Francis Xavier. Xavier
becomes a disciple, and the great Jesuit missionary to the Indies,
China and Japan. Character of the Jesuits. Their success and
influence. Causes of their ultimate unpopularity. . . . J08
(c) "J he Council of Trent. — Council of Trent meets in 1545. The
Jesuits prevail over the mediating Reformers. The Inquisition
introduced into Rome by Caraffa, afterwards Pope Paul IV. The
Council adjourned till 1525, under Paul IV. The Roman Catholic
Church reformed in morals, but made more rigid than ever in creed
ju
CHAPTER VI.
THE FUTURE OF SPAIN AND FRANCE.
(a) The Future of Spain.— Growth of absolute mo crchy in Spain.
Philip II. in close league with the Papacy. S ks to establish
Spanish and Papal supremacy together. Fatal results of his policy. 214
(0) The Future of France. — Everything sacrificed to gratify the am-
bition of the absolute monarchy under Francis I. The curse which
the absolute monarchy was to France. Struggle with the Hugue-
nots in France. Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572. Toleration
for a time under the Edict of Nantes. Its revocation in 1685, and
the banishment of the Huguenots, who came to England. . 216
CHAPTER VII.
GENERAL RESULTS OF THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION
(u) On the Growth of National Life. — Influence of the Protestant
Revolution on national life — where it succeeded — where it failed —
where it partly failed and partly succeeded 218
(£>) On the Relations of Nations to each other. — Small improvement in
the dealings between Nations. The Oxford Reformers not listened
to in this. Henry VIII. the last English king to dream of recover-
ing France. Hugo Grotius afterwards urges International reform. 219
i,c) Influence on the Growth of National Languages and Literature .
--Luther's Bible and Hymns fix the character of the German lan-
guage. Influence of Calvin's writings on the French language.
Influence of Tindal's New Testament on the English version of the
Bible, and so upon the English language. ..... 220
(d) Ffecls in Stimulating National Education. — Schools founded by
Savonarola, Colet, Luther, Calvin, Knox, the Pilgrim Fathers, and
the Jesuits. ........... 22a
(e) Influence on Domestic Life — Political importance of domestic life.
Danger to it from the existence in a country of large celibate classes.
Dissolution of monasteries and permission to the clergy to marry, a
step gained for modern civilization. ..... . 223
[/) Influence on Popular Religion. — The Protestant movement popu-
larized religion, and strengthened individual conviction. . . 22J
Summary.
{g) Want of Progress in Toleration.— Change, from Catholic to Pro-
testant creeds was change from one rigid scholastic creed to others,
equally rigid. Small connection between claiming freedom of
thought and conceding it to others. Persecution did not make the
persecuted tolerant. Yet toleration was after all one of the ulti-
mate results of the Protestant revolution. ... . . . 225
(A) llie Causes ivhy the Success of the Era -was so partial. — Progress
must be gradual. Limited by the range of knowledge. Limited
view of the universe. The earth still thought to be in the centre.
The crystalline spheres. Heaven beyond. The motion of the
spheres regarded with awe, and in popular superstition referred to
angels. Astrology laughed at by some but believed in by others.
Belief in visions and inspirations, and in prodigies. Universal be-
lief in witchcraft. Witches as well as heretics burned. Barbar-
ism of ciiminal law everywhere. The age not prepared for tolera-
tion. .....'..,... 221
(z) Beginning of Progress in Scienti/ic Inquiry.— The range of geo-
graphical and astronomical knowledge widened. Nicolas Coperni-
cus argues that the sun is in the centre of the universe. His great
work not published till he was on his death-bed. He was followed
by Tycho Brahe, Kepler and Galileo before the century was closed. 231
CHAPTER VIII.
ECONOMIC 1 ESULTS OF THE ERA.
{.•asults of the Era on what remained of the feudal system. In Ger-
many, personal services continued. In France, feudal rents and
payments chiefly in kind continued till 1798. In England, feudal
rents were chiefly in fixed money payments. Effect of the dis-
covery of the silver mines in the New World. The fall in the value
of money caused a great rise in prices. German peasants' services
not lessened by it ; nor the French peasants' rents in produce, but
it reduced the burden of the English peasants' rents in money to
one-sixth or one-eighth of the value of the land. This would have
made them peasant proprietors had they held on to their land, but
their tendency was to leave their land and become labourers for
wages. Change from peasant proprietorship of land and of looms
to labour for wages chiefly the result cf the growth of commerce
and capital and the use of machinery. These changes had begun
in the sixteenth century, and they completed the silent downfall of
the feudal system in England. 23J
CONC LUSION.
The Protestant Revolution was the beginning of a great revolutionary
wave which broke in the French revolution of 1798. The move-
ment was inevitable, and might have been peacefully met and aided
by timely reforms ; but ;he refusal of reform at the time of the
crisis involved ten generations in the turmoils of revolution. . 23J
MAPS.
At the beginning.
1. Christendom, &c.
2. The Commerce of Christendom.
At the end.
3. Serfdom, and Rebellions against it.
before 1 51 5.
4. The Peasants' War, 1525.
ERA
OF THE
PROTESTANT REVOLUTION
PART I.
STATE OF CHRISTENDOM.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
(a) The Small Extent of Christendom.
In the map at the beginning of this volume the light
portion marks the Old World as it was known at the
commencement of the era of which we have to speak.
A glance will show how small a portion of the known
world belonged to Christendom — that marked red and
striped red. And only the red part belonged ThesmallneSB
to Western or Roman Christendom, with ofchristen-
which we have mostly to do. The part striped
red had long ago severed itself from the Western and
belonged to the Eastern Church, which by the Roman
was regarded as heretical and alien. Thus the Christen-
dom of which Rome was the capital embraced only
the western half of the little peninsula of Europe. And
not even all that. For there was a little bit of Spain
(marked blue) which did not belong to Christendom.
B
2 State of Christendom. pt. i.
We may note next how much smaller Christendom
was than it had once been. It had once covered not only
Smaller than ^ Parts coloured red and striped red, but
it once had also those coloured dark blue, i. e. all Europe,
Asia Minor, and the African shores of the
Mediterranean Sea. But the dark blue portions had been
conquered from Christendom by her great rival Moham-
Th m h medan power, whose religion, though only
medan power, half as old as Christianity, was thought to
number many times as many adherents as
there were Christians, and covered a much larger area
than Christendom — all the countries marked blue.
More than 700 years — twenty generations — ago the
Mohammedan Moors, after conquering the African shores
™ , , . of the Mediterranean, had pushed on into
Checked in r
the West. Spain and threatened Christendom from the
West. Defeated and checked at the great battle of Tours
in 732, after a struggle of 700 years they still held a foot-
hold in Spain — the rich southern province of Granada.
But whilst checked in the West, Mohammedan arms
had recently been encroaching more and more upon
Christendom from the East. Turkey and
But en- '
croaching from. Hungary had fallen into their hands, and in
1453, i. e. in the lifetime of the fathers of the
men of the new era, Constantinople had been taken by
the Turks. The old capital of the Eastern Roman
Empire now became the capital of the great Ottoman
Empire. We see then how near to Rome Turkish con-
quests had come. Only the Adriatic separated the Otto-
man Empire from Italy. Once the Turks had even got a
footing in the heel of Italy. It really seemed not unlikely
that the capital of Christendom might itself some day
fall into their hands.
CH. I. Introductory. 3
No wonder the Turks were the terror of the Chris-
tians. And yet they had one thing in common, and it is
well that we should remember it. They were worshippers
of the same God. Both Christians and Mo- __. ,.
Kinship
hammedans professed to trace back their between Chris-
r ■ 1 a 1 1 -T-i 1 y—i ■ 1 tians, Moham-
faith to Abraham. Though Christendom was medans, and
small and dwindling, the area of the religion Jews-
inherited from Abraham was large and in- „
° But they hate
creasing. But this was no consolation to men one another.
to whom their fellow Christians of the East-
ern Church were heretics, the ' unbelieving Jews ' the ob-
jects of scorn, and the 'infidel' Turks of terror.
(d) The Signs of New Life in Christendom.
Christendom had never felt herself so small or so be-
set with enemies. And yet there were signs of a new
life springing up. The new era was to be one of hope
and progress.
The Crusades of the Christian nations, intended to
dislodge the ' Infidel ' out of Jerusalem, though they had
failed in that object, had awakened Europe to T „
J L Influence of
new life. East and West were brought nearer the Crusades,
together. Knights and soldiers and pilgrims
brought home from new lands new thoughts and wider
notions. Commerce with the East was extended. Mari-
time enterprise was stimulated. There was
. , Inventions.
improvement in ships. The mariner s com-
pass was discovered, and under its guidance longer voya-
ges could safely be made. The invention of _,- r^
. , , , , , . Fall of Con-
gunpowder had changed the character of stantinopie.
xvar and enlarged the scale on which it was waged. The
recent conquests of the Turks were indirectly the cause
of new life to Christendom. The fall of Con- _ . , _,
. . Revival of
stantinopie resulted in a great revival of learning.
4 State of Christendom. pt. I.
learning in Europe. Driven from the East, learned
Greeks and Jews came to settle in Italy. Greek and
Hebrew were again studied in Europe. The literature,
the history, the poetry, the philosophy and arts of old
Greece and Rome were revived. And the result was
that a succession of poets, painters, sculptors, and histo-
rians sprang up in Christendom such as had not been
known for centuries. Above all the inven-
Printing. . ..... ...
tion of printing had come just in time to
spread whatever new ideas were afloat with a rapidity
never known before.
(e) The Widening of Christendom.
So it is easy to see there were abundant signs of new
life in Christendom, however small, and hemmed in, and
threatened she might be. A new era was coming on,
and now observe how Christendom was widened, and
fresh room found for the civilization of the new era to
work in.
(i) In 1491 the Moors were at last and for ever driven
out of Spain by the conquest of Granada by '
Moors driven J
out of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella, and men felt that a
turn had come in the tide of victory in favour
of Christians.
(2) In 1492 came the discovery of the New World by
Columbus, followed up by the Spanish conquests of
Mexico and Peru, the Portuguese settle-
Discovery of ....
America. ments in Brazil, and the gaining of a foot-
hold in the New World by Sebastian Cabot for England
— the embryo of those great colonies, the New England,
or extension of England across the Atlantic, in which
half the English people now dwell.
(3) In 1497 Vasco de Gama sailed for the first time
round the Cape of Good Hope, and a new way was
ch. i. Introductory. 5
opened to Asia and the East Indies, and
* New way to
out of this in the far future came England's East Indies.
Indian Empire and Australian colonies.
Looking again at the map, and adding to the Old
World the countries coloured in shadow which were
brought to light mostly during the childhood of the men
of the new era, we cannot wonder that they spoke of
them as belonging to a ' new world.' And bearing in
mind that having reached the West Indies, knowing of
no Pacific Ocean between, they thought they had
reached the East Indies from the west, and so had been,
as it were, round the world, we may realize how grand
the new discoveries must have seemed to them. Men of
that day did not of course realize what we know now,
how wide a field these new discoveries would open for
Christian civilization to extend itself into. But still they
gave an immediate feeling of relief to pent-up Christen-
dom, a spur to commerce and maritime en- _, _
1 Men s minds
terprise, new light to science, new sources prepared for
of wealth, and new direction to the energies £re'
of nations, and more or less to all men a sense that they
were living in an age of progress and change which pre-
pared them to look into the future with hope, and to ex«
pect great events to happen in their time.
(d) The New Era one of Progress in Civilization.
In what Modern Civilization Consists.
The work of the new era was to gain for Christendom
a fresh step in the onward course of civilization.
And when we speak of advance in civilization, what
do we mean ? Not simply advance in popu-
- . ill 1 r 1 What civiliza-
lation, wealth, luxury, but far more, that tionis.
which is hid in the derivation of the word,
viz,, advance in the art of living together in civil society.
State of Christendom.
PT. i.
And in order clearly to understand the work that was
to be done in this era of progress, we must understand
the difference between (i) the old form of civilization
which was to be left behind and (2) the new form of
civilization towards which fresh steps were to be gained.
(1) The old Roman civilization had come about by
the conquest of the uncivilized tribes of Western Europe
™. ,^ ™ by the Romans, by their making the known
The old Ro- ' J °
man civiliza- world into one great empire, bringing all its
ends together by making roads, encoura-
ging commerce, making the Latin language understood
by the educated all
over it, and Rome the
centre of it all. The
Roman Empire was in
fact a network of Ro-
man towns, with all the
threads of it drawn to-
wards Rome. These
towns were camps,
from which the con-
querors ruled the dis-
tricts round. Little
account was taken of
the country people.
They were looked upon as hopelessly rustic and barba-
rian. Under this system all the conquered countries
were made provinces of the Roman Empire, not for their
own but for the conquerors' good. The
masses of the people were governed by Ro-
man governors for the benefit, not of themselves, but of
a small number of Roman citizens. T^is vice — this blot
— in the Roman polity was no doubt the cause of its de-
cay.
CHIEF ROMAN ROADS i
Its main vice.
ch. i. Introductory. 7
(2) The aim of modern civilization is obviously far
higher than this. It has not yet reached its _
0 , , , . . . Modern
goal, but we see clearly that it has been civilization.
aiming, not at one vast universal empire,
but at the formation of several compact and separate
nations, living peaceably side by side, respecting one
another's rights and freedom ; and, looking within each
nation, at making all classes of the people, town and
country, rich and poor, alike citizens for whose common
weal the nation is to be governed, and who .
° .Its strength.
ultimately shall govern themselves. In this
aim of modern civilization to secure the common weal oj
the people lies its power and strength.
Now the passage from the old decaying form of civili-
zation to the new, better, and stronger one, involved a
change : and this change must needs take „,, . . ,
1 1 11 1 rr,, , , , The Cr'S'S °f
place slowly and by degrees. The old order the struggle
of things had gradually for long been going olYanTtluT
out ; the new order of things had gradually "h;ng°rder of
for long been coming in. But in this era
was to be the crisis of the change — the final decisive
struggle between the two forces ; and in this lies its
importance and its interest.
Before we begin the story of this struggle, we must
briefly consider what it was in the state of _
*-i • 1 i-ii 1 j , • Plan of this
Christendom which brought it on ; and this book,
will be done best by our examining —
(1) The powers which belonged to the old order of
things, and now dying out.
(2) The state of the modern nations which were
growing up in their place.
In doing so, we shall try to lay most stress on the
condition of the masses of the people ; and we shall not
fail to see clearly some of the main points in which, if
8 State of Christendom. pt. i.
modern civilization was to go on, there was a necessity fof
reform, and the danger there was that, if the needful re-
forms were much longer withheld, there would be revo-
lution.
Then in Part II. will come the story of the struggle ;
and in Part III. its results on the different nations. We
shall end with trying to take stock of the amount of pro-
gress gained during the era, and to look forward at the
prospects of the future that arise out of it.
CHAPTER II.
THE POWERS BELONGING TO THE OLD ORDER OF
THINGS, AND GOING OUT.
(a) The Ecclesiastical System.
Western Christendom was united under one Eccle-
siastical system — the Roman, or, as it called itself, the
' Holy Catholic' Church.
It was, in fact, a great Ecclesiastical Empire, of which
Rome was the capital, and the Pope of Rome the head.
In the last generation there had been a
The Eccle- °
siastical Em- schism — i. e. for a while there were two rival
RomeThe Popes excommunicating each other — but
capital. after much trouble and scandal the schism
had been ended, and now all was one again.
Europe was mapped out into ecclesiastical provinces,
at the head of each of which was an archbishop. Each
province was divided into dioceses, with bishops at their
head, and each diocese into parishes, each with its parish
priest. Thus there was an ecclesiastical network all over
Europe, all the threads of which were drawn towards
CH. ii. The Ecclesiastical System. 0
Rome, and held in the hands of the Pope and his cardi«
nals.
This ecclesiastical empire kept itself as free as possi-
ble from the civil power in each nation. It considered
itself above kings and princes. It was more T ,
_ , . , . , . Independent
ancient than any of their thrones and king- of the civil
doms. Kings were not secure on their thrones pow
till they had the sanction of the Church. On the othef
hand the clergy claimed to be free from prosecution
under the criminal laws of the lands they lived in. They
struggled to keep their own ecclesiastical laws and their
own ecclesiastical courts, receiving authority direct from
Rome, and with final appeal, not to the Crown, but to
the Pope.
In addition to the parochial clergy, there were orders
of monks. The two chief of them were the rival orders
of the Dominican and Augustinian monks ; m
ihe monks.
and in most towns there were one, two, or
half-a-dozen monasteries and cloisters. So numerous
were the monks that they swarmed everywhere, and had
become, by the favour of the Popes, more important and
powerful in many ways than the parochial clergy.
It is essential to mark what a power this ecclesiastical
empire wielded over the nations. The „
t . . , , . i-i ■, , , Power of the
ecclesiastics held in their hands the keys, ecclesiastical
as it were, not only of heaven but of earth. svstem>
They alone baptized ; they alone married people
(though unmarried themselves) ; they alone could grant
a divorce. They had the charge of men on ,
1-11111 i i-i i bv influence
their death-beds ; they alone buried, and over the
could refuse Christian burial in the church- peope'
yards. They alone had the disposition of the goods of
deceased persons. When a man made a will, it had to
be proved in their ecclesiastical courts. If men disputed
io State of Christendom. pt. i.
their claims, doubted their teaching, or rebelled from
their doctrines, they virtually condemned them to the
stake, by handing them over to the civil power, which
acted in submission to their dictates. You will see at
once how great a power all these things must have given
them over the minds, the fears, the happiness, and the
lives of the people.
The ordinary revenues of the clergy were large. They
, . , , had a right to ' tithes : ' i. e. to a tenth part
by its wealth ; t> » v
of the produce of the whole land of Chris-
tendom. This had belonged to them for hundreds of
years. In addition to this they claimed fees for every-
thing they did.
The monks, according to the rules of their founders,
ought to have got their living by begging alms in return
for their preachings and their prayers for the living and
the dead. But their vow of poverty had not kept them
poor. People thought that by giving property to them
they could save their souls ; so rich men, sometimes in
their lifetime but oftener on their deathbeds, left them
large sums of money and estates in land. In spite of
laws passed by the civil powers to prevent it, it was said
that they had got about a third of the land of Europe
into their possession. Thus the revenue and riches of the
Church was far larger than that of the kings and princes
of Europe.
These were not the sole secrets of their power. From
the fact that the clergy were almost the only educated
, , people in Europe, they became the lawvers
bv the mono- L L . .
poly of learn- and diplomatists, envoys, ambassadors, min-
isters, chancellors, and even prime minis-
ters of princes. They were mixed up with the politics
of Europe, and the reins of the State in most countries
were in the hands of ecclesiastics. They received pro-
CH. II.
The Ecclesiastical System.
il
and political
influence,
motion to bishoprics most often in return for
such political services.
We cannot fail to see how vast the political power of
such an ecclesiastical empire as this must have been.
The Pope, through his army of ecclesiastics all over
Christendom, had the strings in his hand by which to
influence the politics of Europe. And one , , „
which ; 11 cen-
of the great complaints of the best men of tred in Rome.
the day was that this political influence was
used by Rome for her own ends instead of the good of
Europe, and that the immense ecclesiastical revenues
tended to flow out of the provinces into the coffers of the
Popes and cardinals of Rome.
All this of course tended
to hinder the m . ^ .
1 his Empire
growth and in- will be
j i r broken up.
dependence of
the separate nations, and to
prevent all classes within
them from becoming united
into a compact nation.
It will be one great work
of the era, to break up this
ecclesiastical empire — to free
several nations (those mark-
ed white on the map) from its yoke. So that Rome will
cease to be the capital of Christendom.
(b) The Scholastic System.
There was another power in Europe which was
Roman and not national ; which tended to keep classes
of people apart, and so stood in the way of the growth of
national life in the separate nations.
The learned world was a world of its own, severed
12 State of Christendom. pt. i.
from the masses of the people by its scholastic system.
The learned A11 tne learned men in Europe talked and
world talked wrote letters and books in Latin— the Ian-
and wrote
Latin, guage of Rome. Some of them did not
even know the common language of the countries they
lived in. And as Latin was the language of learning,
so Rome was the capital of the learned world. Thus
the learned world was closely connected with the eccle-
siastical system. Learned people were looked upon
as belonging to the clergy; and the Pope had long
and belonged claimed them as subjects of his ecclesiasti-
to the clergy. C2L\ empire. So for centuries in England a
man convicted of a crime, by pleading that he could
read and write, could claim benefit of clergy, i. e. to be
tried in an ecclesiastical court, and this by long abuse
came to mean exemption from the punishments of the
criminal law of the land.
This tended to give to knowledge and learning itself a
clerical or scholastic character. Knowledge was tied
„,, . , down by scholastic rules which had grown up
This made . . , , , . , ,
learning in times when the ecclesiastics were the only
sc oasuc, educated people. The old learned men —
' the schoolmen ' as they were called — looked at every-
thing with ecclesiastical eyes. All knowledge had thus
got to be looked upon almost as a part of theology.
Matters of science — e. g. whether the earth moved round
shackled ^he sun or ^e sun round the earth — were
science, settled by texts from the Bible, instead of by
examining into the facts. So there was no freedom of
inquiry even in scientific matters. A man who made
discoveries in science might be stopped and punished
if he found out that the old schoolmen were wrong in
anything.
Under the scholastic system the Christian religion,
CH. II.
The Scholastic System.
'3
which in the days of Christ and the apostles was a thing of
the heart (love of God and one's neighbour), and reiigion
had grown into a theology— a thing of the also>
head. The chief handybook of the theology of the school-
men was a great folio volume of more than 1,000 pages.
Thus the scholastic system necessarily kept both
science and religion the property of a clerical class, and
out of the hands of the common people, to whom
Latin was a dead language ; while at the and kept
same time it kept the learning even of the JJ;|mcof™™on
learned world shackled by scholastic rules, people.
It is important to see this clearly, because one great
part of the work of the new era was to throw the gates
of knowledge open to all men, and to set Necessityof
the minds of men free from this clerical or mental free-
scholastic thraldom — to set both science
and religion free, for freedom was as important to the
one as it was to the other. Without it there could be no
real progress in civilization.
UNIVERSITIES. Those founded before 1400 underlined
14 State of Christendom. pt. I.
m , The universities were the great centres of
The Universi- , , ' . &
ties. the learned world.
There were thirty or forty of them scattered over
Europe, and they were in more or less close connexion
with each other. They are marked on the map, and the
chief of them should be carefully remembered. The
oldest and most celebrated were Oxford and Cambridge
in England, Paris and Orleans in France, Bologna and
Padua in Italy, and Salamanca in Spain, Prague in
Bohemia, and Cologne in Germany. These, at the begin-
ning of the era of the Reformation, were all more than a
hundred, and some two hundred years old. The young-
est university in Europe was that of Wittenberg, founded
in 1502 by the Elector of Saxony.
Students were in the habit of passing from one uni-
versity to another. Oxford students would pass on to
_ , Paris, and from Paris to Bologna, to take
btudents pass , °
from one to their degrees. And wherever there hap-
pened to be a famous professor, thither stu-
dents from all other universities nocked.
Now the result of this was very important.
As one example, we may take the great movement in
the fourteenth century in the direction of reform.
Wiclif wrote books in Latin at Oxford. They were
copied and read all over Europe. Oxford students went
Th to the newly-opened university at Prague.
this in the days Wiclif's writings made as much noise, and
of Wiclif
were as well known in Bohemia as they were
in England. Huss and Jerome of Prague became the
Bohemian successors of the English Wiclif, and thus
the movement in favour of reform was transplanted from
one country to another. What was discussed among
the learned soon trickled down into the common talk of
the people. So there arose out of Wiclif's movement
ch. ii. The Scholastic System. 15
the Lollard insurrection in England and the Hussite
wars in Bohemia.
What had thus happened before in the days when
books were multiplied only by the slow work of the pen
was still more likely to happen again in the days of the
printing press.
We shall see how in the new era these things were re-
peated— how the spirit of revival of learning and religious
reform spread, first among the learned from
university to university by students passing peated in the
from one to another, now in Italy, now into
England, now into Germany, and how at last it trickled
down into the minds of the common people all over Eu-
rope.
The fact that both the ecclesiastical system and the
learned world were coextensive with Christendom, and
so closely united together, gave to Christendom a unity
which alone made the work of the era possible. It was
as though, in spite of distance and the diffi-
culties of travelling, learned men were the era.
nearer together than even now, in these
days of railroads and steamboats and telegraphs. The
work of the era was to rend Christendom asunder.
Rome was no longer to be her capital. The Pope was
no longer to be recognized everywhere as her spiritual
head. The Latin language was no longer to be the
common tongue of literature and books all over Europe.
Young nations were to divide Europe between them, to
have their own churches and clergy, their own lan-
guages, their own literature, their own learned men and
universities, and so to become more independent of each
other and of Rome. And this was one of the stages
through which Christian civilization was to pass in its
onward course.
16 State of Christendom. pt. i.
{c) The Feudal System and the forces which were
breaking it up.
There was another system which was opposed to the
r¥M r , , growth of modern nations — the feudal sys-
1 he feudal ° ■ m J
system. tem. It belonged to the old order of things,
and was fast decaying and going out.
Divided coun- The feudal system hindered the growth of
treu !Iiord- ^ree nat^ons» not by tending too much to keep
ships. up the unity of Christendom, but by dividing
countries up into innumerable petty lordships.
Each feudal lord was a little sovereign both as regards
those below him — his vassals and serfs — and also as re-
gards his fellows, except so far as he and they were con-
trolled by higher feudal powers above them. He waged
what petty wars he chose with his neighbours, and lorded
it over his vassals and serfs, whilst himself very jealous-
ly resisting any unusual interference from powers above
him.
_ r v The feudal system had already shown
Decay of the. . J . J
feudal system, signs of falling to pieces, and in some coun-
tries had very much died out.
In some countries the petty lordships had fallen quite
under the power of the Crown.
By a long process, some of the feudal lords had grown
„ , . p in power, while the multitude of smaller ones
Subjection of .
feudal lords to had sunk into ever-increasing insignificance.
Especially in countries where by the rule
of inheritance lordships descended only to the eldest
male heir, there was a natural tendency for lordships to
unite by marriage and inheritance. The greater families
intermarried and grew richer, and the royal family was
in fact the one which had grown so much bigger than
the rest that it kept swallowing up more and more into
ch. ii. The Feudal System. 17
itself. We shall see that it was so notably in France.
The process went on more slowly in Germany, where the
rule of inheritance was division among the male heirs,
and so the tendency was towards more and more divi-
sion, and an ever-increasing host of petty lordships. In
Germany the feudal system was still in full force, and we
shall see by-and-by how it prevented her from growing
into a compact nation, and how much she had to suffer for
w^'it of the nobles being subjected to a central authori-
ty able to preserve the public peace and to T
r r r Increasing
curb their lawlessness and tyranny. But power of the
• 1 crown.
speaking generally, things were more and
more working in the new era towards the complete sub-
jection of the feudal nobility in each nation to the cen-
tral power, i. e. towards the supremacy of the Crown.
Bat commerce was breaking up the feudal system faster
than anything else, and commerce had its chief seat in
the towns. Trade, commerce, and manufactures were
the life of the towns. The little towns were the markets
of the country round, and their trade lay be- The growth
tween the peasantry and the bigger towns. of commerce.
The^e, in their turn, lived upon the share they had in
that; wider commerce of the world, of which, by the aid
of Map No. 2 (at the beginning of this volume), we must
now try to grasp the main features.
The Crusades had done much to open up a commerce
between Asia and Europe. This commerce _ , . .
1 Trade of the
with the East was mostly in the hands of the Mediten-a-
great cities on the Mediterranean Sea. The
new way to the Indies was not yet open. The products
of the East, its spices and its silks, were carried overland
from the Persian Gulf and Red Sea to the Levant, and
then shipped to the ports of Italy. Silk manufactures
were also carried on in Italy, in Catalonia in Spain, and
c
1 8 State of Christendom. pt. i.
at Lyons in France. These eastern products and silks
were the chief exports of the Mediterranean merchants.
The commerce of the North Sea was equally important.
The woollen manufactures of the north were its chief
feature: Spain exported wool and some parts of Germany,
but England was the great wool-growing country. The
wool was woven into cloth in the looms of the eastern
rr, counties of England, and Flanders on the
Ihe manu- °
facturing opposite shore of the North Sea. These
districts. , , • r r • 1-
were the chief manufacturing districts,
though other towns in England, up the Rhine, and in
Germany, had their weavers also. There were also con-
siderable linen manufactures in the north of France.
The North Sea was the great fishing ground, and
_. dried fish was a great article of commerce
1 he °
fisheries. when during Lent and on every Friday all
Christendom lived upon fish.
There was also a trade in furs and skins with North
Russia, Norway, and Sweden.
This commerce of the North was carried on by the
Hanse towns — reaching from the shores of the Baltic
„,, westward to the Netherlands, and inland in
1 he com-
merce of the Germany as far south as Cologne. There
were eighty towns belonging to this league,
and they had stations or factories at Novgorod, Bergen,
London, and Bruges.
Bruges in Flanders had been, and now Antwerp was
the great central mart of the commerce of the world.
Bruges and Here the merchants of the North exchanged
Antwerp the their goods with the merchants of the
central marts D
of commerce. Mediterranean. Here their ships met and
divided the maritime commerce of the world be-
tween them. Here, too, the maritime met the inland
and overland trade— inland trade with the German
ch. ii. The Feudal System. 19
towns, overland trade down the Rhine, T .
Lines of
through Germany, over the Alps, by the maritime,
Brenner and Julier passes into Italy. There overland1
was much trade between German and trade-
Venetian merchants, and the contemporary historian,
Machiavelli, states that all Italy was in a manner supplied
with the commodities and manufactures of Germany.
Since the Netherlands and Austria fell into the hands of
the House of Hapsburg, and Maximilian was Emperor
of Germany, there had also naturally sprung up a trade
between the Rhine and the Danube.
These were the great lines of trade, and in these lines
lay the chief commercial towns, living on their share in
the commerce of the world.
Under the feudal system the towns had once been
mostly subject to feudal lords, but they had „,,
. . ... 1 he towns
early shown their independent spirit, and re- had mostly
belled, or bargained for charters of freedom. got
A free town was a little republic, organized for protection
from foes without and for peaceful trade within. The
members of each trade were banded together into guilds
for mutual protection, and there was generally a sort of
representative government — an upper and lower council
of citizens, by whom the town was governed.
We can easily understand how likely the towns were
to hate the feudal lords, whose petty wars dis-
, 1 -. •, , • 1 Why the
turbed the public peace and made commerce towns hated
hazardous. They had to fortify themselves feudalism
against these petty wars, and their cavalcades of mer-
chandize had to be protected by soldiers on the roads.
So there had grown up out of commerce an anti-feudal
power in Europe. In almost every country the
towns banded themselves together against the Crown.
the feudal system, and when the power of the
2o State of Christendom. pt. i„
Crown began to rise, the towns were the stepping-stones
by which it rose to the top. Kings invited the towns to
send burgesses to the national Diets or Parliaments,
and they were a growing power in almost every State.
There was yet another most numerous and most im-
portant class affected by feudalism — the peasant))'.
The peasants, under the feudal system,
peasantry. were more or less reduced to a condition of
vassalage or serfdom.
Let us understand what this was. The tribes who
conquered Northern and Western Europe were a land-
folk — people living by the land. They set-
Once more free / , * -m i i lit-
than under the tied in villages, and all the land belonging
to each village belonged to the community,
as it does now in Swiss valleys. The people were
tenants only of their little allotments, with common
rights over the unallotted pasture, woods, forests, and
rivers: i. e. they had a common or joint use of them.
Now the feudal system had put the feudal lords in the
place of the community. The peasantry became tenants
of these lords, paying rents sometimes in money, but
chiefly in services of labour on their lords' lands. The
lords, moreover, claimed more and more of the unal-
lotted portion of the common lands as their own. The
serfs were not allowed to leave their land, because it
would rob the lords of their services. So the lords held
their peasantry completely in their power. This was
feudal serfdom when in full force. In some countries it
was still in force, in others it had almost disappeared.
In those countries where the lords were most subjected
Where the to tne Crown, as in France and England, the
central power serfs were likely to be best off and farthest
was weakest, J
feudal serfdom advanced on the road to freedom. In those
jngere .^ ^j^ tjie feudal lords were least sub-
ch. II. The Feudal System. 21
dued, and the central power least formed, as in Ger-
many, we should expect to find feudal serfdom linger-
ing on. And it was so.
As the towns were the enemies of the feudal nobility,
so they were the friends of the feudal peasantry. Com-
merce introduced everywhere money pay-
ments instead of barter. Payment of rent in and commerce
services of labour was an old-fashioned kind ^omof the66
of barter. Commerce, therefore, helped to Peasantry-
introduce money rents and money wages, and where
these were early introduced, as in France and England,
the condition of the peasant was much improved. But
more than this ; labour was often wanted in the towns :
the wages paid in the towns often tempted the peasant to
desert his land and feudal lord, and to flee to a town. The
towns favoured this immigration into them of runaway
serfs, and there grew up in some countries a settled rule
of law that after residence in a town a year and a day
they could not be reclaimed.
Thus we see clearly how the feudal system was break-
ing up under the influence of commerce and the com-
bined power of the towns and the Crown.
The petty lordships were becoming united into the
larger unit of the nation, but we see on the other hand
what a danger there was of the nation becoming divided
into hostile classes. How were classes so contrarient as
the feudal lords, the townspeople, and the peasantry, to
be blended in one national life ? This was the great
problem modern civilization had to solve, and some na-
tions succeeded much better than others in solving it.
22 State of Christendom. pt. I.
CHAPTER III.
THE MODERN NATIONS WHICH WERE RISING
INTO POWER.
{a) Italy.
No country had made less progress towards becoming.
a compact and united nation than Italy, the
Not a united x .
nation. very country in whic h Rome, the capital of
Christendom, exercised most influence.
The contemporary historian, Machiavelli, shows how
, Rome was the cause of Italy's ruin and dis-
Rome, accord-
ing to Ma- unity.
chiavelli, the TT . n e . . ^, , ^,
cause of her He says : Some are of opinion that the
disunity. welfare of Italy depends upon the Church
of Rome. I shall set down two unanswerable reasons to
the contrary : —
'(i) By the corrupt example of that court Italy has
lost its religion and become heathenish and irreligious.
' (2) We owe to Rome also that we are become di-
vided and factious, which must of necessity be our ruin,
for no nation was ever happy or united unless under the
rule of one commonwealth or prince, as France and
Spain are at this time. And the reason is that the Pope,
though he claims temporal as well as spiritual jurisdic-
tion, is not strong enough to rule all Italy himself, and
whenever he sees any danger he calls in some foreign
potentate to help him against any other power growing
strong enough to be formidable. Therefore it is that, in-
stead of getting united under one rule, Italy is split up
into several principalities, and so disunited that it falls
easily a prey to the power not only of the barbarians,
but of any one who cares to invade it. This misfortune
we Italians owe only to the Church of Rome.'
ci i. hi. Italy. 23
That these words of Machiavelli were too strictly true,
we shall judge from the facts.
We have seen what was the power of Rome. If ex-
erted in favour of Christian civilization how many bless-
ings might not the Church have earned !
. . Rome a centre
But it was notorious to every one living at of rottenness.
the time that Rome used her power so ill,
and that her own character and that of her Popes were
so evil, that she had become both politically and spirit-
ually the centre of wickedness and rottenness in Europe
and especially in Italy.
And this was no new thing. Men had been complain-
ing of it for generations. The greatest poets of Italy
had long before immortalized the guilt of _
^ rr, , r ,1 Dante on the
Rome. Two centuries before, Dante had Popes.
described the Popes of his day as men
whose avarice
O'ercasts the world with mourning, under foot
Treading the good, and raising bad men up.
Of Shepherds like to you, the Evangelist
Was ware, when her who sits upon the waves
With kings in filthy whoredom he beheld !
And soon after Dante, Petrarch had de- „
Petrarch on
scribed Rome thus : — Rome.
Once Rome ! now false and guilty Babylon !
Hive of deceits ! Terrible prison,
Where the good doth die, the bad is fed and fattened!
Hell of the living! ....
Sad world that dost endure it ! Cast her out !
And in the days of these great poets men, Reformers
and Councils too, had tried to reform Rome, but without
avail. A few more generations had passed and Rome
was now not only unreformed but in respect to morals
worse than ever. How much worse we know not only
24 State of Christendom. pt. i.
from the censures of her poets, but from the facts of her
contemporary historians.
The Popes of Rome had for long not only wielded
both political and spiritual power, but used
Recent r . . l r ...
Popes bad them to enrich their own families ; and as a
rule they had recently been notoriously bad
men.
Alexander VI. was the reigning Pope, and the worst
Rome ever had. His wicked reign lasted from 1492 to
K03. His great aim was to bring Rome,
Alexander D ° & . to
vi. and Csesar and if he could, all Italy, into the hands of
his still wickeder son Caesar Borgia. The
latter caused his own brother to be stabbed and thrown
into the Tiber. He had his brother-in-law assassinated
on his palace-steps. He stabbed one of his father's
favourites who had taken shelter under the pontifical
robes, so that the blood spirted into the Pope's face.
_ . . Rich men were poisoned to get their wealth.
1 heir crimes. _ x °
The reign of these Borgias was a reign of
terror in Rome. At last, in 1503, the Pope fell, it is
said, into his own trap, and died of the poison he had
prepared for another.
Another great Italian historian of the time, Guic-
ciardini, records that the body of the Pope, black and
loathsome, was exposed to public view in St. Peter's.
And he goes on to say : —
"All Rome flocked to that sight, and could not suf-
ficiently satiate their eyes with gazing on the remains of
the extinct serpent, who by his immoderate ambition,
pestiferous perfidy, monstrous lust, and every sort of
horrible cruelty and unexampled avarice — selling with-
out distinction property sacred and profane — had com-
passed the destruction of so many by poison, and was
now become its victim ! '
CH. II
Italy.
*5
Machiavelli was right then, that the example of Rome
in Italy was an evil one. That it made the Italians hate
the Church, and drove thinking men, while Effoctsofthe
they remained superstitious, to doubt Chris- Pope's
, „ ,. wickedness.
tianity, and to welcome even Pagan reli-
gions, because they seemed so much purer than that
which Rome offered them, we shall see by-and-by. This
is what he meant when he spoke of the Italians becom-
ing 'heathenish' — it was exactly the fact.
And now as to this othei statement, that Rome was
the cause of the divisions,
and therefore of the ruin
of Italy; this also, the
facts of the recent history
of Italy will make clear.
The map shows how
Italy was in the main
divided — Venice, Milan,
and Flor-
ence to
north ; Na-
ples to the south; the
Main divi-
the sions of
Italy.
States of the Church between.
(i) The States of the CJntrch. Over these the Popes
had a shadowy kind of rule, but they were made up of
petty lordships and cities, claiming independence, and
even Rome was ruled by its Barons rather
J Papal States.
than by the Popes; or to speak more cor-
rectly the Barons and the Pope were always quarrelling
which of the two should rule. The Pope lived in his
strong castle of St. Angelo, close by the city.
(2) Venice was a commercial city, 1,000 years old,
ruled by its nobles and possessing territory like ancient
26 State of Christendom. pt. i.
„ . Rome, ruled for the benefit of its citizens
Venice.
rather than its subjects.
(3) Florence was also a commercial republic, but not
governed by its nobles. It was a democratic republic,
but one family of citizens — the Medici — had
t lorence.
grown by trade richer than the rest, and
usurped almost despotic power. It also possessed con-
siderable territory.
(4) Milan was a State to which there were many rival
claims. The King of France, as Duke of Orleans, claimed
it by inheritance from the last Duke of Mi-
Milan. '
Ian. The King of Naples (and Spain through
him) also had a claim, and the Emperor of Germany
claimed it as having reverted to the Empire. Meanwhile
the Sforza family had possession, and kept it off and on
till 1 512.
(5) Naples was also a State to which there were rival
claims. Its nobles had usurped almost uncontrolled
power. The right to feudal sovereignty over it was dis-
puted between the Counts of Anjou (France)
Naples.
and the King of Arragon (Spain). The lat-
ter had long had possession, and it had descended to a
bastard branch of that house.
That the Popes were continually fomenting quarrels
between these Italian States and bringing 'barbarian'
princes to fight their battles on Italian soil, a few facts
will show.
Alexander VI. and Caesar Borgia first stirred up
Venice and Milan against Naples. Then they invited
Charles VIII. of France, who in 1494 crossed the Alps,
overturned the Medici at Florence, and entered Naples
in 1495. Then in 1495 the Pope, Venice, and Milan
joined with Ferdinand of Spain in turning the French
out of Naples again.
ch. in. Germany. 27
In 1500 Louis XII. of France took Milan, and then
he and Ferdinand of Spain jointly invaded Naples. But
they quarrelled, and Spain, under Gonsalvo „ , ,
J L Papal politics
de Cordova, defeated the French, and so the ruin of
Ferdinand became King of Naples, and ay'
(having Sardinia and Sicily before) of the two Sicilies
in 1505.
In 1503 Julius II. became Pope, and devoted his ten
years' reign to constant war. In 1 509 he, France, Spain,
and Germany formed the League of Cambray against
Venice. But the robbers quarrelled on the eve of victory,
and so Venice was not ruined.
In 1 51 1 Louis XII. of France tried to get Henry VIII.
of England to join him in deposing Julius II. But Julius
succeeded in getting England and Spam and Gerjnany
to join his 'Holy League' against France.
After driving Louis XII. of France out of Italy,
Julius II. died in 15 13, and was succeeded by Leo X.
(b) Germany.
Next to Italy, Germany was furthest of all modern
nations from having attained national unity. The Ger-
man, or, as it called itself, ' the Holy Roman ' TT ,
Had not yet
Empire, was a power which belonged to the attained
old order of things. Like the Pope of Rome, unity"21
the Emperor considered himself as the head
of Christendom. He called himself ' Caesar,' pehrorEm"
and ' King of Rome ; ' and, as successor to claimed to
0 be Csesar
the Roman Empire, which the Germans had and King of
conquered, claimed not only a feudal chief-
tainship over nations of German origin, but also a sort
of vague sovereignty over all lands. As the Pope of
Rome was the spiritual head, so the Emperor considered
himself the 'temporal head of all Christian people.'
28
State of Christendom.
PT
Switzerland had indeed severed herself from the Ger-
man Empire. England, Spain, and France had never
properly belonged to it. But the French king had
neverthe less sometimes sworn fealty to the Empire ;
and even Henry VIII. of England, when it suited his
purpose (z. e. when he wanted to be Emperor !) took
care to point out to the Electors that while his rival,
TT , . Francis I. of France, was a foreigner, in
His claim to °
universal em- electing an English Emperor, they would
shadowy. not be departing from the German tongue.
On other occasions he took care to insist
that England, however Saxon in her speech, had never
been subject to the Empire. So the claim to universal
sovereignty was very shadowy indeed.
When a vacancy occurred, the new Emperor was
elected under the ' Golden
Bull' of 13.56,
by seven Prince
Electors, viz. : [On the
Rhine]. The three Arch-
bishops of Mayence, Treves,
and Cologne, and the Count
Palatine of the Rhine. [On
the Elbe]. The king of
Bohemia, the Elector of
Saxony, the Margrave of
Brandenburg.
The ceremony of coronation showed the feudal nature
of the Empire. When elected, the Emperor attended
high mass. Then the Archbishop of Mayence, as-
„,, ,. , , sisted by Cologne and Treves, demanded
The feudal . . . .
ceremony. of him, ' Will you maintain the Catholic
faith ? ' ' I will.' Then he demanded of his
brother electors, ' Will you recognize the elected as
How elected.
iJyP
THE SEVEN PRINCE ELECTORS
ch. in. Germany. 29
Emperor ? ' ' So be it.' Then he was robed in the robes,
girt with the sword, and crowned with the crown of
Charlemagne. Then came the banquet. The King of
^Bohemia, in true feudal fashion, was the imperial cup-
bearer ; the Count Palatine carved the first slice from
the roasted ox ; the Duke of Saxony rode up to his stir-
rups into a heap of oats, and filled a measure with grain
for his lord ; and lastly, the Margrave of Brandenburg
rode to a fountain and filled the imperial ewer with water.
When elected, the Emperor had little real power in
Germany ; and, indeed, as time went on he seemed to
have less and less.
Once large domains had belonged to the Emperor :
some in Italy, some on the Rhine. But former emperors
had lost or ceded the Italian estates to _T .
..... No imperial do-
Itahan nobles and cities during struggles mains,
with the Popes ; while those on the Rhine
had been handed over to the Archbishops of Mayence,
Treves, and Cologne, who were Electors, to secure votes
and political support. For some generations there had
been no imperial domains at all ; not an inch of territory
in Germany or Italy came to the Emperor with his impe-
rial crown. The Emperor was therefore reduced to a
mere feudal headship.
Nor had the Emperor, as feudal head, much power in
Germany. He found it very hard to get troops or
money from the German people. Maximi- _ „ .
. . A Small imperial
han, the reigning Emperor, was notoriously power.
poor, and declared that the Pope drew a
hundred times larger revenue out of Germany than he
did. He was a powerful sovereign in Europe because
he was head of the Austrian house of Hapsburg, which
was rising into great power in Europe by its alliances.
Already possessed of Austria and Bohemia, Maxi-
3° State of Christendom. PT. I.
milian had married Mary of Burgundy, and the Nether-
The Em eror ^an<^s- His son Philip thus was heir-appa-
MaximiHan, rent to those provinces as well as Austria.
House of " a Philip married Joanna, daughter of Isabella^
apsburg. Qf Spain ; and so their son Charles became
heir to Spain also. Thus was the House of Hapsburg
pushing itself into power and influence. The German
Empire was the crowning symbol of their power rather
than the reason of it. In the case of Maximilian, it was
the power of Austria that made the German Emperor
great. By-and-by, as we shall see, when Charles V. of
Charles V Austria, Spain, and the Netherlands rises to
the Empire and becomes the most powerful
prince in Europe, it is by Spain, not Germany, that he
wields his still greater influence.
The power of the Emperor was far less in Germany
than in his own domains, for in Germany his power was
checked by the Diet or feudal parliament of the Empire.
The Diets ^e ^iet was a feudal, not a representative
parliament; i. e. only the Emperor's feudal
vassals had a claim to attend and vote in it.
The Diet met and voted in three separate houses :
1. The Electors (except the King of Bohemia, who
had no voice except in the election of an Em-
peror).
2. The Princes, lay and ecclesiastical.
3. The Free Imperial Cities (/. e. those cities which
held direct of the Emperor).
The Electors and Princes had most power. Only what
was agreed upon by them was last of all submitted to the
No power to House of cities. To secure the carrying out
enforce their of the decrees of the Diets, there had also
decrees. , ,
recently been some attempts at an organiza-
tion of the Empire. It was divided in circles for the
ch. in. Germany. 31
maintenance of order; but this, though plausible on pa-
per, had little effect in reality, because the Diets had no
real power to enforce their decrees.
Germany was, in fact, still under the feudal system —
still divided up into petty lordships — more Thefeudals
so than perhaps any other country ; certainly tem still pre-
more so than England, Spain, or France.
One reason for this was, as we have seen, that the
German law of inheritance divided the lordships between
the sons of a feudal lord on his death ; so „ , ,. . . ,
Subdivision ot
there was constant subdivision, and in con- lordships by
, r lawofinherit-
sequence an ever-increasing host of petty ance.
sovereignties.
The mass of the feudal lords were petty and poor, and
yet proud and independent, resisting any attempts of the
powers above them, whether Emperor, or
Diets, or Princes, to control them. They &££** petty
claimed the right of waging war; and, by
their petty feuds, the public peace was always being
broken.
They lived a wild barbarian life in times of peace
(z. e. when not at feud with some neighbouring lord), de-
voted to the chase, trampling over their tenants' crops,
scouring the woods with their retainers and their dogs.
In times of war and feuds, with helmets, breastplates, and
cross-bows they lay in ambush in the forests watching an
enemy, or fell upon a train of merchants on the roads
from some town or city with which they had a quarrel.
They became as wild and lawless as the wolves.
Gotz von Berlichingen (popularly known as 'Gotz with
the Iron Hand'), and Franz von Sickingen were types of
this wild knighthood. They were champions
of fist-law (faust-recht). They called it pri- 0fatheSS
vate war. but it was often plunder and pillage knishte-
32 State of Christendom. pt. i.
by which they lived. Gotz was indeed more like the head
of a band of robbers than anything else. He one day
saw a pack of wolves fall upon a flock of sheep. ' Good
luck, dear comrades,' said Gotz, 'good luck to us all and
everywhere!' These lawless knights were indeed like
wolves, and, just as much as the wild animals they
hunted, belonged to the old order of things, which must
go out to make way for advancing civilization.
The free towns of Germany were her real strength.
The citizens were thrifty, earned much by their com-
The towns of nierce, spent little, and so saved much.
Germany. Each city was a little free state (for they had
mostly thrown off their feudal lords), self-governed, like
a little republic, fortified, well stored with money in its
treasury, a year's provisions and firing often stored up
against a siege. The little towns were of course de-
pendent in part on the peasantry round, buying their
corn, and in return supplying them with manufactured
goods. But the bigger towns lived by a wider commerce,
and held their heads above the peasantry. Above all,
they hated the feudal lords, whose feuds and petty wars
and lawless deeds put their commerce in
Their leagues ,
for mutual peril. Two hundred years ago, sixty towns
on the Rhine had leagued themselves to-
gether to protect their commerce. After that had come
the league1 of the Hanse Towns, chiefly in the North of
Germany, but including Cologne and twenty-nine adja-
cent towns, and aiming at defending commerce from
robberies by land as well as piracy by sea.
They had to form these leagues because Germany
was divided and without a real head — not yet a nation—
1 See the Map of Commerce.
ch. in. Germany. 33
though all that was good and great in it was
. , . - . , ,.r r , Want of a
sighing for more national life, for a central central power
, , . , , • to maintain
representative power strong enough to main- the public
tain the public peace, but hitherto sighing Peace-
in vain, finding in her Emperor little more help than
Italy found in her Pope.
No class in Germany had suffered more from want of
a central power than the peasantry. They still were in
feudal serfdom. While in other countries, _
The con-
where there was a well-established central ditionofthe
government, the lot of the peasantry had growing"7
improved and serfdom almost been got rid £arderford
of, here in Germany their lot had grown want of a
/ central power.
harder and harder for want of it.
The German peasant, or ' Bauer? was still a feudal
tenant. In many ways he was no doubt better off than
a labourer for wages. His house was no mere labourer's
cottage — it was a little farm. He had about him his
land and his live stock, his barn and his stack. Under
the same roof with his family his cows and pigs lay upon
their straw and he upon his bed. On the raised cooking
hearth the wood crackled under the great iron pot hung
on its rack from the chimney-hood above, while sauce-
pans and gridirons, pewter dishes and pitchers with their
pewter lids were hung upon the walls ; the oak table and
coffee were heirlooms with his house and his land. In
mere outward comforts many a free peasant, working
for wages and having no land to till for himself, would
gladly have changed places with him; but behind all
was his thraldom to his feudal lord.
He had traditions of old and better days, when he was
far more free, when his services were not so hard and the
exactions of his lord not so great. But in History of
the fourteenth century the Black Death had 'Bauer.'
D
34 State of Christendom. pt. i.
thinned the population of Germany and made labour
scarce. In other countries, where the law of the land
had fixed the amount of the services, and where
the influence of commerce had substituted money-
payments for services, this scarcity of labour strengthened
the peasant in his struggle for freedom. But in Germany,
where there was no law to -step in, and where services
continued, the scarcity of labour was only likely to make
the lords insist all the more upon their performance ; and
so they had encroached more and more on the peasants'
rights, enacted more and more labour from them, in-
creased their burdens, robbed them more and more of
their common rights over the pastures, the wild game,
and the fish in the rivers, grown more and more inso-
lent, till the peasants in some places had sunk almost
into slavery. It was galling to them to have to work for
their lords in fine weather, and to have to steal in their
own little crops on rainy days. Small a thing as it
might be, perhaps it was still more galling to receive
orders on holidays to turn out and gather wild straw-
berries for the folks at the Castle. Hard, too, it seemed
to them when, on the death of a peasant, the lord's
agent came and carried off from the widow's home the
ha'iot or 'best chattel,' according to the feudal custom —
perhaps the horse or the cow on which the family was
dependent.
But however bad a pass things might come to, there
was no remedy — no law of the land to appeal to against
_ , „. the encroachments of their lords. The Ro-
Rebellion
his only man civil law had indeed been brought in
by the ecclesiastics, and the lords favoured
it because it tended to regard serfs as slaves. The serfs
naturally hated it because it hardened their lot. There
was no good in appealing to it. It was one of their
CH. Ill
Spain.
35
grievances. So the peasants of each place must fight it
out with their own lords. They must rebel or submit,
waiting for better days, if ever these should come !
(c) Spain.
Spain was destined to become the first power in
Europe. She rapidly grew into a united nation, and
during the era attained the highest point of Becoming
power and prosperity she ever reached ; but the firs*
power in
she fell soon after from the pinnacle on which Europe.
she then stood, and has never since risen again so high.
Ever since the conquest of Spain by the Goths and
Vandals, in the eighth century, it had been a feudal
nation; and, as in most other feudal coun- powerofthe
tries, the power had got into the hands of nobles-
the feudal lords or nobles. But Spain was singular in
this, that it had passed under a long period of Moham-
medan rule.
By the invasions of the Moors the feudal chiefs of
Spain had been driven up into the mountains of the
north, while probably the peasantry mostly ve .
remained in the conquered country, subject the north by
to the Moors. By slow degrees the feudal
chiefs reconquered the northern provinces- till the Moors
3 6 State of Christendom. pt. \.
retained only the rich southern provinces ; and as bit af-
ter bit was reconquered by the nobles, it became a little
independent state under the feudal chief who recon-
quered it.
Already, however, there had grown up in Spain the
three kingdoms of Castile, Arragon, and Navarre, fa-
._ e voured by the influence of the towns.
Reconquest of _ J
Spain from the Owing to the constant struggles going on
Granrada!XCep there had been for long no safety except
in the towns. These had further grown in
power and importance by trade and manufactures, and
had become little states — like little Venices — each with
its independent government.
Both in Castile and Arragon the monarch was scarce-
ly more powerful than the Emperor in Germany. His
power was controlled by the Cortes or par-
Kingdoms of ,. ... , , , .
Castile and liament, at which met the nobles, deputies
from the towns, and clergy. And to the
Cortes belonged the power of levying taxes and enacting
laws.
Such was the state of things when, by the marriage of
Ferdinand of Castile to Isabella of Arragon (in 1481), all
. , , Spain, except Navarre and Granada, was
united under x
Ferdinand and united under one monarchy, and from this
time the tendency was for the throne to be-
mOTe^n^nwe come more and more absolute. It was one
absolute. 0f the first objects of Ferdinand and Isabella
to extend the power of the monarchy.
Spain had found, as the Germans had found, that
without some central power it was hard to keep the
peace, to protect trade and commerce, and to put down
robbery and crime. The cities had united in a ' Holy
Brotherhood ' for this purpose, and Ferdinand sided with
them in this object. But what more than anything else
ch. in. Spain. 37
counteracted the feudal tendency to separate into little
petty states, and to strengthen the national feeling and
make it rally round the common centre of
. , . , , Conquest of
the throne, was the war long waged by Fer- Granada.
dinand, and at length successful, against the
last stronghold of the Moors in Granada. In 1492 Gra-
nada was taken, the 700 years' struggle ended, and the
Moors driven forever out of Spain. Thus was all Spain
(except the little state of Navarre, under shelter of the
Pyrenees) united in one nation. The modern kingdom
of Spain, thus formed, rose up at once to be one of the
first powers of Europe.
We have already seen how Charles VIII. of France
had been invited by Pope Alexander VI. to conquer
Naples. As a bribe to keep Ferdinand (who „ ,.
r \ Ferdinand s
had a rival claim on Naples) quiet while he policy to com-
went on this raid on Naples, he had ceded p e e pam'
to Ferdinand the little state of Perpignan, on the Span-
ish side of the Pyrenees. Ferdinand was intent on the
completion of the kingdom of Spain, and took the bribe.
We shall soon find him (in 1512) obtaining possession
of Navarre. In the meantime the result of the Italian
wars was that he got hold of Naples ; and having the
islands of Sardinia and Sicily already, he became King.,
of the ' Two Sicilies,' as well as of Spain.
Another fact added to the power of Spain. It was
under Spanish auspices that Columbus discovered Ame-
rica. This not only threw the gold of the mines of Peru
into the treasuries of Spain ; it added ^ , ,
iii/- T Columbus.
another great laurel to her fame. It was
Spain that had driven the Moors out of Western Europe ;
it was Spain that enlarged Christendom by the discovery
of the New World.
38 State of Christendom. pt. i.
„ . The foreign policy of princes in those
Foreign po- ■> • n ■, ^ ,
licy. Mar- days was very much influenced by the mar-
riages they planned and effected for their
children.
Ferdinand's first aim was to get all the Spanish Pe-
ninsula under the power of the Spanish Crown. So he
married his eldest daughter to the King of Portugal, in
hopes of some day uniting the two Crowns. This came
to pass in the person of Philip II., the husband of the
English Queen Mary.
His next policy was to ally himself with such foreign
powers as would best help him to secure his ends.
There were two reasons why he did not ally himself with
France. France was his rival in Italy. He had fought
with France for Naples, and meant to keep it. He also
wanted Navarre to complete the Spanish kingdom.
France claimed it also. The aim of Spanish foreign
policy was, therefore, to work against France.
By the marriage of his daughter Catherine to the King
of England, and Joanna to the heir of the rising Aus-
trian House of Hapsburg, who held the Netherlands,
and whose head, Maximilian I., was Emperor of Ger-
many, he connected himself with the two powers who,
like himself, were jealous of France — England, because
part of France had so long been claimed as belonging to
the English Crown — the House of Hapsburg, because
France had got hold of part of Burgundy (which former-
ly belonged to the same Burgundian kingdom as the
Netherlands).
And on the whole, though his schemes
Success of °
these alliances, did not prosper in his lifetime, they did suc-
ceed in making Spain the first power in Eu-
rope during the next reign.
When Queen Isabella died, Joanna became Queen of
ch. ill. Spain. 39
Castile. She, however, was insane, and her husband
Philip dying soon after, Ferdinand held the reins of
Castile in her name as Regent. On his death, in 1516,
Castile and Arragon were again united, under Charles
V., and Spain became greater than ever.
The domestic policy of Ferdinand and Isabella had
also for its object the consolidation of Spain _
. * Domestic po-
under their throne. Their great minister licy.
was Cardinal Ximenes, whose policy was to
strengthen the central power of the Crown by engaging
all Spain in a 7iational war against the Moors, and by
strengthening the towns (or loyal element) at the ex-
pense of the feudal nobles (the disloyal element, in Spain
as elsewhere). The subjugation of the no- „ , . . ,
■J ° Subjugation of
bles to the Crown was in a great measure the nobles,
effected, and the Crown became more and more abso-
lute.
Not content with driving out of Spain the last rem-
nant of the Mohammedan Moors, the Catho- The inquisi_
lie zeal of the king and queen and Ximenes tlon-
turned itself against the Jews and heretics. They founded
the 'Inquisition' in Spain, which in a genera- Banishment
tion burned thousands of heretics. They of the Jews-
expelled, it is said, more than 100,000 Jews from their
Spanish homes. These first took refuge in Portugal, and
soon after, driven from thence, were scattered over
Europe.
■ But notwithstanding this zeal for the Catholic faith,
by which Ferdinand and Isabella earned the title of 'the
Catholic' there was no notion in the minds of Ximenes or
his royal master and mistress to sacrifice Spain to Rome.
They were as zealous in reforming the morals of the
clergy and monks as in rooting out heresy. They de-
manded from the Pope bulls enabling them to visit and
4o
Stale of Christendom.
FT. I
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^^"Se( wnich prevented her growth in inter-
na? unity, which sowed the seeds of bitter feeling between
classes, and ended in producing her Great Revolution.
We cannot note too carefully these fatal mistakes.
(i) The king got the power of levying taxes — the
lout con-
;nt of the
ch. in. France. . 45
' taille* — without the consent of the people. „
Royal taxes
The 'Estates General,' or French Parlia- with,
ment, which had hitherto had a voice in people.
matters of taxation, hereafter had none ; the
Crown became absolute.
(2) The kino;, successful in his war _
v ' °' Royal stand-
against England, henceforth out of these mg army.
taxes kept a large standing army.
These things, said Philip de Commines, the con-
temporary French historian of Louis XI., 'gave a wound
to his kingdom which will not soon be closed.'
He was right, for these two things kept classes apart
and broke up the internal unity of France. To see how
they did this, let us look at each class separately.
The nobility or noblesse of France were made into
a permanently separate caste. In old times they paid
no taille, because they gave their military services to the
king in his wars. Now there was a standing army they
were less and less needed as soldiers, yet their freedom
from taxation remained. They were a privi- m
I he noblesse
leged class, and intermarried with one an- a privileged
other. Their estates went down to their
eldest sons, but the younger sons, too, belonged to the
noblesse. So they became a very numerous class,
poor, but proud of their blood and freedom from
taxes.
The peasantry, on the other hand, were the burdened
class. In some respects they were much The peasantry
better off than the German peasantry. n°tseris,
Very early in their history feudal serfdom had been
abolished in the north of France, especially in Normandy ;
while in most parts their services in labour had been
long ago changed into fixed rents, paid most often in
corn, wine, or fruits. But their young crops still suf-
46 • State of Christendom. pt. I.
butpaying fered from the lord's game. They still had
rents tolls and fees and heriots to pay, and forced
labour to give on the roads. They still looked up to the
feudal lord as to a master, and the lord down upon them
as born for service. There was an impassable barrier
of blood between the two classes. The Church added
her claims — her tithes, as in other countries,
and the endless fees and money payments,
which made her so obnoxious. Bishops and abbots,
in France as in Germany, had large estates as well as
tithes, and so were landlords and princes as well as
priests, drawing, Machiavelli says, two-fifths of the
annual revenues of the kingdom into their ecclesiastical
coffers. Lastly came the extra burden of the taille,
growing with the military needs of kings who, having an
army, and not content with turning out the
and taille. _,.,.. . r .
English and conquering refractory barons,
must needs lay claim to Milan and Naples, and invade
Italy.
Here is a picture drawr>, by the peasants themselves of
their hard lot, as they complained to the States General
on the accession of Charles VIII., and laid their grie-
vances before the new monarch, hoping for a remedy
which never came.
' During the past thirty-four years troops have been
'ever passing through France and living on the poor
Their grie- ' people. When the poor man has managed
vances. « by the saie 0f the coat on his back, after
'hard toil, to pay his taille, and hopes he may live out
' the year on the little he has left, then come fresh troops
'to his cottage, eating him up. In Normandy multi-
' tudes have died of hunger. From want of beasts men
' and women have to yoke themselves to the carts, and
'others, fearing that if seen in the daytime they will be
ch. in. France. 47
1 seized for not having paid their taille, are compelled to
' work at night. The king should have pity on his poor
'people, and relieve them from the said tailles and
'charges.'
Alas ! Charles VIII., instead of listening to their com-
plaints, took to invading Italy ! increasing their taille
and spilling more of their blood.
When to all this we add the consciousness that while
they, the much-enduring peasantry, were bearing their
increasing burdens, the noblesse were free from them,
can we wonder if the peasantry should learn to hate as
well as envy the nobles ?
The middle class in order to escape the incidents of
the rural taxation more and more left the rural districts to
live in the towns. Not sharing the blood or _,
° The middle
the freedom from taille of the nobles, there class leave
. . . . . .., ,, the country-
Was no mixing or intermarrying with them. forthe
They were of different castes. Neither did towns-
the men of the towns sympathize with the peasantry.
They had their taille to pay like the peasantry, but under
their charters they enjoyed privileges which the peasant
did not. They were merchants rather than manufactu-
rers. Some linen manufactures were carried on in
Brittany and Normandy, but mostly France was supplied
with goods from the looms of Flanders in exchange for
corn and wine. The towns were the markets in which
the products of the peasant were exchanged, and the
townsmen thus had the chance of throwing a part of
their burdens on their rural customers in the shape of
tolls and dues. While thus the noblesse grew prouder
and poorer, and the peasantry were more and more bur-
dened, the middle classes in the towns grew richer and
more and more powerful.
Hence the eulf between different classes in France was
4-S State of Christendom. pt. i.
ever widening. The Crown was absolute and uncon-
trolled by any parliament, the noblesse a privileged caste,
the middle class settling in the towns, while the poor
peasantry were left to bear their burdens alone in the
_ . countrv. France had grown a big united
Separation ■* ° °
of classes the country on the map, but looking within the
main vice in , . ± J r . . , . , , . , . ,
French nation, a state of things had begun which, if
polity. unreformed, was sure in the end to produce
revolution, though it might not come yet.
In the meantime the first false steps of the absolute
kings of France were those attempts at aggrandizement
Love of which led them to invade Italy and prove
foreign wars their strength in a long rivalship with Spain.
the chief vice ° off
in her policy. To gratify a royal lust for empire and mili-
tary glory they were ready to sacrifice the welfare of the
French people.
( like a band of ™bbers, set-
justice, ting upon Venice, or Naples, or Milan ; then
quarrelling amongst themselves, and forming fres^h
leagues to drive one another out. Their foreign policy
was aggressive and wofully wanting in good faith. This
want of public peace and international morality was a
crying evil. It disturbed commerce, and its worst re-
sult was that it inflicted terrible hardships on the mass-
es of the people. The voice of the French peasantry
was clear upon this point. Here then was need for
reform.
The second great point aimed at by modern civiliza-
tion was, that (looking within each nation) all classes of
the people were to be alike citizens, for whose common
weal the nation was to be governed, and who were ulti-
mately to govern themselves.
Not only as yet had the masses of the people no share
in the government of the nations of which they formed so
large a part, but also they were very far from being re-
garded as free citizens, except in England, where in
theory they were so, though perhaps not much so in prac-
tice. In Germany especially, the peasantry
of the Ger- were still in feudal serfdom, and feeling their
santt-yTtili thraldom more keenly than ever. Here,
continued. again, was a necessity for reform.
We have already seen that there was a necessity for
CH. IV. The Necessity for Reform. 59
reform in that ecclesiastical system of Rome „,,
J I he eccle-
which opposed the free growth of the modern siastical and
. . , ... scholastic
nations, and in the scholastic system so systems
intimately connected with it, which was op- "^m
posed to free thought, science, and true
religion, and prevented the diffusion of the benefits of
knowledge and education among the masses of the people.
Now the question for the new era was, whether the
onward course of modern civilization was to
be by a gradual timely reform in these things, tive^freform" or
or whether, reform being refused or thwarted , revolutlon-
it was to be by revolution.
Recognizing the necessity there was for reform, we
have now to see the danger there was of revolution ; how
far and wide, in fact, the train was already laid, waiting
only for the match to explode it.
[b) The Train laid for Revolution.
It will not seem strange, (1), that it was among the
oppressed peasantry of Germany that the
• rr r The tra'n WaS
train was most effectually laid for revolu- laid among the
tion; or, (2), that when attempts had been Santry.npea
made at revolution, they were aimed at the
redress of both religious and political grievances.
The ecclesiastical grievances of the peasantry were as
practical and real as those involved in feudal serfdom,
The peasant's bondage to the priests and
1 r !!-,,,, Their ecclesi-
monks was often even harder than the bond- astical as well
age to his feudal lords. It was not only that grievances.
he had tithes to pay, but after paying tithes,
he still had to pay for everything he got from priests and
church. That religion which should have been his help
and comfort was become a system of extortion and
fraud.
60 State of Christendom. pt. r.
These are the words of a contemporary writer (Juan
de Valdez, the brother of the secretary of the Emperor
Charles V.), himself a Catholic, and well ac-
Contempo- . .. . . , .. . r i •
rary testi- quamted with the condition of things in
Germany: 'I see that we can scarcely get
' anything from Christ's ministers but for money ; at bap-
'tism money, at bishoping money, at marriage money,
' for confession money — no, not extreme unction without
'money! They will ring no bells without money, no
'burial in the church without money; so that it seemeth
'that Paradise is shut up from them that have no money.
'The rich is buried in the church, the poor in the church-
'yard. The rich man may marry with his nearest kin,
' but the poor not so, albeit he be ready to die for love of
' her. The rich may eat flesh in Lent, but the poor may
' not, albeit fish perhaps be much dearer. The rich man
' may readily get large indulgences, but the poor none, be-
' cause he wanteth money to pay for them.'
We must remember, too, how galling to the peasant
was the payment of the large and small tithes. These
words were written in England, but they will serve for
all Europe :
' They have their tenth part of all the corn, meadows,
'pasture, grass, wood, colts, calves, lambs, pigs, geese,
' and chickens. Over and beside the tenth
Another testi-
mony, 'part of every servant's wages, wool, milk,
'honey, wax, cheese, and butter; yea, and
'they look so narrowly after their profits that the poor
'wife must be countable to them for every tenth egg, or
' else she getteth not her rights at Easter, and shall be
'taken as a heretic'
Can we wonder that the peasants should rebel against
this? and that in Germany, where both feudal and eccle-
siastical oppression was so galling, they should rebel
CH„ IV, The train laid for Revolution. 61
against both, and mix the two together in their minds,
demanding in one breath both religious and political
freedom ? Surely there was reason in it.
As early as the fourteenth century the Swiss peasants
in the Forest Cantons had rebelled and thrown off the
yoke of their Austrian feudal lords, and when
.... . Successful re-
the latter joined in a common cause against beliionof the
them, the Swiss were victorious in the battle Swlss> I3I5.
of Morgarten, 131 5. The Swiss had formerly belonged
to the German Empire, and had the Empire done justice
between them and their lords, they would have been
glad enough to remain free peasants of the Empire ; but
as the Empire helped their lords instead of them, they
threw off the yoke of the Empire. They were soon
joined by other neighboring cantons, and their flag, with
its white cross on a red ground, became the flagjof a new
nation, the Swiss confederacy, with its motto, ' Each for
all, and all for each' — a nation of free peasants, letting
out their sons as soldiers to fight for pay, and, alas, not
always on the side of freedom !
Between 1424 and 147 1 the peasants of the Rhsetian
Alps did the same thing. Oppressed and insulted by
their lords they burned their castles and and the pea.
threw off their yoke, and thus was formed sants of the
■* Oraubund,
the Graubund, in imitation of the Swiss con- I44I-71-
federacy, but separate from it.
Referring to the map 'Serfdom and Rebellions against
it' we mark these two Swiss republics on it as the region
where rebellion had met with success. It was no doubt
their mountains which helped the Swiss peasants to suc-
cess and independence. Their battles were little Mara-
thons. At Morgarten 1,300 Swiss won the day against
10,000 Austrian troops. Their Alps were their protection.
We mark next the region where the rebellion against
62 State of Christendom. pt. i.
Rome and the Empire, which followed in Bohemia upon
the preaching of Wiclif and martyrdom of
Unsuccess- TT r
ful rebellion Huss, had been, after a long reign of terror,
Urdsand and the Hussite wars (141 5-1436), quelled in
warT^ 1 -- blood. Hussite doctrines were indeed still
1436.' held by the people, and by the treaty of
Basle in some sense tolerated ; but this, nev-
ertheless, was the region where rebellion, springing out
of the last era of light and progress, had been crushed
to rise no more.
Now we have got to mark where, in connexion with
the new era, there were signs, as we have said, that a
train was laid for a coming revolution.
The John the Baptist of the movement was Hans Bo-
helm, a drummer, who had appeared in 1476 in Franco-
Threats of • n'a> on the Taubcr, a branch of the Maine.
Rebellion in n0 professed to be a prophet, to have had
h rancoma in r L L
1476. visions of the Virgin Mary, and to be sent by
her to proclaim that the Kingdom of God was at hand,
that the yoke of bondage to lords spiritual and temporal
was coming to an end, that under the new kingdom there
were to be no taxes, tithes, or dues ; all were to be
brethren, and woods, and waters, and pastures were to be
free to all men. A crowd of 40,000 pilgrims flocked to
hear the prophet of the Taubcr till the Bishops of Wurz-
burg and Maintz interfered, dispersed the crowd and
burned the prophet. He was but a sign of the times — a
voice crying in the wilderness ! But his cry was one
which found a response in the hearts of the peasantry-
freedom from the yoke of their feudal and spiritual lords,
and the restoration of those rights which in ancient daya
had belonged to the community. This was the cry of
the peasantry for many generations to come.
The next was a much more formidable movement, viz,
en. iv. The train laid for Revolution.. 63
that named from the banner borne by the The ' Bund-
peasantry, the Bundschuh, or peasant's clog. schutl>
While the peasants in the Rhaetian Alps were gradu-
ally throwing off the yoke of the nobles and forming the
Graubund, a struggle was going on between in Kempten,
the neighbouring peasantry of Kempten (to iw2-
the east of Lake Constance) and their feudal lord, the
Abbot of Kempten. It began in 1423, and came to an
open rebellion in 1492. It was a rebellion against new
demands not sanctioned by ancient custom, and though
it was crushed, and ended in little good to the peasantry
(many of whom fled into Switzerland), yet it is worthy
of note because in it for the first time appears the banner
of the Bundschuh.
The next rising was in Elsass (Alsace), in 1493, the
peasants finding allies in the burghers of the towns
along the Rhine, who had their own grie- Jn Elsass
vances. The Bundschuh was again their I493-
banner, and it was to Switzerland that their anxious eyes
were turned for help. This movement also was prema-
turely discovered and put down.
Then, in 1501, other peasants, close neighbours to
those of Kempten, caught the infection, and in 1502,
again in Elsass, but this time further north, Both again in
in the region about Speyer and the Neckar, 1501-2.
lower down the Rhine, nearer Franconia, the Bund-
schuh was raised again. It numbered on its recruit
rolls many thousands of peasants from the country
round, along the Neckar and the Rhine. The wild
notion was to rise in arms, to make themselves free,
like the Swiss, by the sword, to acknowledge no supe-
rior but the Emperor, and all Germany was to join the
League. They were to pay no taxes or dues, and com-
mons, forests, and rivers were to be free to all. Here
d\ State of Christendom. ft. i.
again they mixed up religion with their demands, and
'Only what is just before God' was the motto on the
banner of the Bundschuh. They, too, were betrayed,
and in savage triumph the Emperor Maximilian ordered
their property to be confiscated, their wives and children
to be banished, and themselves to be quartered alive.
It would have been suicide on the part of the nobles to
fulfil orders so cruel on their own tenants. They would
have emptied their estates of peasants, and so have lost
their services, for the conspiracy was widely spread.
Few, therefore, really fell victims to this cruel order of
the Emperor. The ringleaders dispersed, fleeing some
into Switzerland and some into the Black Forest. For
ten years now there was silence. The Bundschuh ban-
ner was furled, but only for a while.
In 1 512 and 15 13, on the east side of the Rhine, in
the Black Forest and the neighbouring districts of Wiir-
temberg, the movement was again on foot
About the °' . & ,
Black Forest on a still larger scale. It had found a leader
under joss m 70SS Fritz. A soldier, with command-
Fritz. jng presence, and great natural eloquence,
used to battle, hardship, and above all, patience, he
bided his time. He was one of the fugitives who had
escaped being 'quartered.' He hid himself for years
in places where he was unknown, but never despaired.
At length, in 15 12 he returned to his own land, settled
near Freiburg, and began to draw together again the
broken threads of the Peasants' league. He got him-
self appointed forester under a neighbouring lord, talked
to the peasants in the fields, or at inns and fairs, and
held secret meetings at a lonely place among the forests
in the dusk of evening. There he talked of the pea-
sants' burdens, of the wealth of their ecclesiastical op-
pressors, of the injustice of their blood being spilled in
ch. iv. The train laid for Revolution. 65
the quarrels of lords and princes, how they were robbed
of the wild game of the forest, and the fish in the rivers,
which in the sight of God were free, like the air and the
sun, to all men, how they ought to have no masters but
God, the Pope, and the Emperor. Lastly, he talked to
them of the Bundschuh. They went to consult their
priest, but Joss had talked over the priest to his side,
and he encouraged the movement. Then they framed
their articles, and Joss defended them out of the Bible.
They were first to seek the sanction and aid of the Em-
peror, and if he refused to help them then they would
turn to the Swiss.
There was a company of licensed beggars who
tramped about the country with their wallets, begging
alms wherever they went — a sort of guild, with elected
captains. This guild Joss took into his confidence.
They were his spies, and through them he knew what
watches were kept at city gates, and through them he
kept the various ends of the conspiracy going. His plans
were now all laid. He wanted nothing but the Bundschuh
banner. He got some silk and made a banner — blue,
with a white cross upon it. The white cross was the
Swiss emblem. Some of his followers would have pre-
ferred the eagle of the Empire. But how was the Bund-
schuh to be added ? What painter could be found who
would keep the secret ? Twice he tried and was disap-
pointed, and all but betrayed. At length, far away on
the banks of the Neckar, he found a painter, who
painted upon it the Virgin Mary and St. John, the Pope
and the Emperor, a peasant kneeling before the cross, a
Bundschuh, and under it the motto ' O Lord, help the
righteous.' He returned with it under his clothes, but
ere he reached home the secret was out. Again the
League was betrayed. A few days more and the ban-
F
66 State of Christendom. pt. i.
ner would have been unfurled. Thousands of peasants
were ready to march, but now all was over, the whole
thing was out, and Joss Fritz, with the banner under his
clothes, had to fly for his life to Switzerland. Every-
thing was lost but his own resolution. Those conspira-
tors who were seized were put to torture, hung, be-
headed, and some of them quartered alive.
But Joss Fritz was not disheartened. He returned
after a while to the Black Forest, went about his secret
errands, and again bided his time.
In 1 514 the peasantry of the Duke Ulrich of Wurtem-
berg rose to resist the tyranny of their lord, who had
ground them down with taxes to pay for
In 1514 in t_ • iii i •
Wurtemberg "is reckless luxury and expensive court.
Austrian ^e same vear> m tne valleys of the Aus-
Aips. trian Alps, in Carinthia, Styria, and Grain,
similar risings of the peasantry took place, all of them
ending in the triumph of the nobles.
To defend themselves against such risings a league
had been formed among the nobles of the whole district
The Swabian to the north of Switzerland, called the Swa-
against the bian League, and a proclamation was issued
peasants. that « gince jn the ]and of Swabia, and all
' over the Empire, among the vassals and poor people
'disturbances and insurrections are taking place, with
' setting up of the standard of the Bundschuh and other
' ensigns against the authority of their natural lords and
4 rulers, with a view to the destruction of the nobles and
' all honourable persons, the noble and knightly orders
'have therefore agreed, whatever shall happen, to sup-
' port each other against every such attempt on the part
• of the common man.'
This brings forcibly into view again the fatal vice in
the policy of feudal Germany — want of the consolidation
CH. iv. The train laid for Revolution, 67
of the German people into a compact nation.
,- r^ Far and
For here were the peasantry of Germany ap- wide the
pealing helplessly to some higher power to faf^for^
protect them from the oppression of their j^ure revo-
feudal lords, conspiring for a general rebel-
lion for lack of it, and debating whether on the flag of the
Bundschuh they should paint the eagle of the Empire or
the white cross of the Swiss republic. Here on the
other hand were the nobles and knightly orders con-
spiring by the sheer force of their combined swords to
crush these ' attempts on the part of the common man.'
The crying need of both was for a German nation — a
commonwealth — with a strong central power or govern-
ment to hold the sword of justice between them, settling
their disputes by the law of the land for their common
weal. For lack of this there was rebellion and bloodshed.
These risings of the peasantry were crushed for a while,
but Joss Fritz was only biding his time, and meanwhile
let us bear in mind where, how far and wide over Cen-
tral Europe, the train was laid, waiting only for the
match to ignite it.
It is well to look once more on the map of serfdom, to
fix these revolutionary localities in our mind, and before
we pass away from them to mark how they lie, not in
the region of darkest shadow, where serfdom was most
complete — wheie a conquered Slavonian peasantry were
in bondage too complete for rebellion — nor in the region
of the crushed Hussite rebellions ; but in those regions
next to the countries where serfdom had obtained least
hold, and had passed away ; above all, in .
r J ' The tram laid
those mountain regions where the traditions out where serf-
of ancient freedom had lived the longest, Worst/but
where the spirit of the people was least sub- jj£S£S*°£
dued, and where the close neighbourhood of sisht-
68 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
their fellow mountaineers of Switzerland kept an exam-
ple of successful rebellion ever before their eyes. We
may see in this way most clearly how these peasants'
rebellions were not isolated phenomena, but parts of a
great onward movement beginning centuries back,
which had already swept over England and France, and
freed the peasants there, and now, in this era, had Ger-
many to grapple with. Whether it was destined to be
at once successful or not we shall see in this history, but
we may be sure it was destined to conquer some day,
because we cannot fail to recognize in it one of the waves
of the advancing tide of modern civilization.
PART II.
THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER I.
REVIVAL OF LEARNING AND REFORM AT FLORENCE.
(a) The Revivers of Learning at Florence.
The story we have now to tell begins at Florence.
Florence, as we have already noted, was a republic, but
The Republic differing from other Italian republics in this :
of Florence. that while -n others the nobles held power,
here in Florence, for some generations, the nobles had
been dethroned. The people had got the rule into their
own hands ; and so far had they carried their distrust
of the nobles, that no noble could hold office in the city
unless he first enrolled himself as a simple citizen. Flor-
ence had long been a great commercial city, and the pub-
lic spirit of her citizens had helped to make her prosper-
ch. i. Revival and Reform at Florence. 69
ous. Never had she been more prosperous than in the
early days of her democracy. But every now and then
there were troubled times ; and in such times, more than
once or twice, a dictator had been chosen. Sometimes
even a foreign prince had been made dicta- „
11 r a , , Power in the
tor for a stated number of years. At length hands of the
power had fallen into the hands of the
wealthier families of citizens, and the chief of these was
the family of the Medici.
Cosmo de' Medici was for many years dictator. His
great wealth, gained by commerce, placed him in the
position of a merchant prince. His virtues, Cosmo
and patronage of learned men and the arts, I389-I464-
made him popular ; and his popularity paved the way
for the proud position held by his grandson, ' Lorenzo
the Magnificent.'
Lorenzo de' Medici (of whose times we are to speak)
had followed in Cosmo's footsteps, and had got into his
single hand the reins of the state. He had , , ,
. , • , , , , - , . . Lorenzo de
set aside the double council of elected citi- Medici,
zens, and now ruled through a council of I44 ~1492-
seventy men chosen by himself. His court was the
most brilliant and polished of his time, but in the back-
ground of his magnificence there was always this dark
shadow — he held his high place at the expense of the
liberties of the people of Florence.
There was, however, much in his rule to flatter the
pride of the Florentines.
Under the Medici, Florence had become the * Modern
Athens.' Their genius and wealth had filled it with
pictures and statues, and made it the home „. .
1 ' r 'orence the
of artists and sculptors. At this very mo- Modem
ment, in Lorenzo's palace and under his
oatronage, was young Michael Angelo, ere long to be the
jo The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
greatest sculptor and one of the greatest painters of Italy.
Michael Learning also, as well as art, had found a
Angelo. home at Florence. The taking of Constan-
tinople by the Turks having driven learned men into
Italy, here at Florence, and elsewhere in Italy, the
philosophy of Plato was taught by men whose native
The Platonic tongue was Greek. Cosmo de' Medici
Academy. founded the « Platonic Academy,' and Fi-
Ficmo. cino, who was now at the head of it, had
been trained up under his patronage.
Politiaii (Poliziano), the most brilliant and polished
Latin poet of the day, was always at the palace, directing
the studies of Lorenzo's children, and ex-
Pohtian,
1454-1494 ; changing Greek epigrams with learned ladies
deila Mi ran- of the court. To this galaxy of distinguished
1463-1494 men ^ad recently been added the beautiful
young prince, Pico delta Mirandola, regarded
as the greatest linguist and most precocious genius of
the age. At twenty-three he had challenged all the
learned men of Europe to dispute with him at Rome ;
and some of the opinions he advanced being charged
with heresy, he had taken refuge at the court of Lorenzo,
who gave him a villa near his own and Politian's, on the
slope of the mountain overlooking the rich valley of the
Arno and the domes and towers of Florence. What
these three friends — Ficino the Platonist, Politian the
poet, and Pico, their young and brilliant companion-
were to each other, let this little letter picture to us.
Politian writes to Ficino, and asks him to come.
' My little villa is very secluded, it being embosomed among
woods, but in some directions it may be said to overlook all
Florence. Here Pico often steals in upon me unexpectedly from
his grove of oaks, and draws me away with him from my hiding-
place to partake of one of his pleasant suppers — temperate, as yon
ch. I. Revival and Reform at Florence. 71
know well, and brief, but always seasoned with delightful talk and
wit. You will, perhaps, like better to come to me, where your fare
will not be worse, and your wine better — for in that I may venture
to vie even with Pico.'
Add to this picture the brilliance of Lorenzo's court,
and what a fascinating picture it is !
This little knot of men at Florence, and others in Italy,
were at work at what is called the ' Revival of Learning.'
These revivers of learning are often spoken The Revivai
of as 'the Humanists: They were dig- of Learning,
ging up again, and publishing, by means of the print-
ing-press, the works of the old Greek and Latin writers,
and they found in them something to their taste much
more true and pure than the literature of the middle
ages. After reading the pure Latin of the classical
writers they were disgusted with the bad Latin of the
monks; after studying Plato they were disgusted with
scholastic philosophy. Such was the rottenness of Rome
that they found in the high aspirations of Plato after
spiritual truth and immortality a religion which seemed
to them purer than the grotesque form of _ .
r 0-1 Semi-pagan
Christianity which Rome held out to them, tendencies
They could flatter. the profligate Pope as all revival of
but divine in such words as ' Sing unto Six- earnin§-
tus a new song,' but in their hearts some of them scoffed,
and doubted whether Christianity be true and whether
there is a life after death for mankind,
[b) The great Florentine Reformer, Girolamo
Savonarola.
These were the revivers of learning. But suddenly
there arose amongst them quite another kind of man — a
religious Reformer. He came like a shell _
0 p # Girolamo ba-
in the midst of tinder, and it burst in the vonaroia, 1453
midst of the Platonic Academy. The name ~149 '
72 The Protestant Revolution. pi. [i.
of this Florentine Reformer was Girolamo Savonaro/a,
He too was a learned man, meant by his father to be a
doctor, but being of a religious turn of mind he had
chosen to become a monk. Finding from study of the
Scriptures how much both the Church and
Becomes a re- x
ligious re- the world needed reform, he became a Re-
former. In i486 he commenced preaching
against the vices of popes, cardinals, priests and monks,
the tyranny of princes, and the bad morals of the peo-
ple, calling loudly for repentance and reformation. In
1487 he preached at Reggio. There young Pico heard
him, and, taken by his eloquence, invited him to Flor-
ence. In 1490 he came to the convent of St. Mark,
which was under the patronage of the Medici. Crowds
came to hear him ; shopkeepers shut up their shops
_, , . while he was preaching. He became the
Made prior of 10
St. Mark at idol of the people. In 1491 he was made
Prior of San Marco, and when asked to do
customary homage to the patron for this high appoint-
ment he refused, saying * he owed it to God, and not to
Lorenzo de' Medici ! *
Innocent VIII. had now succeed Sixtus IV. as Pope,
and his natural son had married Lorenzo's daughter.
The Pope in return had made Lorenzo's son John (after-
wards Leo X.), a boy of thirteen, a cardinal! When
Savonarola thundered against ecclesiastical scandals and
the vices of the Pope, Lorenzo naturally did not like it,
He sent messages to the preacher, exhorting him to use
discretion. ' Entreat him,' replied the Reformer, ' in my
name, to repent of his errors, for calamities from on high
impend over him and his family.' The bold Reformer
Stirs up in the went on with his preaching, denouncing judg-
spmt^of reform ments upon Italy and Rome. A marked inl-
and freedom, pression was soon visible in the morals of the
ch. i. Revival and Reform at Florence. 73
people of Florence. More and more he became their
natural leader. Lorenzo tried to keep himself popular by
fetes and magnificent festivals. But gradually influen-
tial citizens, who still longed for the old republic and
ancient liberty, attached themselves to Savonarola. In
1492 Lorenzo de* Medici died. The Re- Death of
former had been sent for, and was with him Lorenz0 and
at his death. It was rumoured that he demanded of the
dying man, as a condition of absolution, that he should
restore to Florence her ancient liberties. _
. T ttttt t i • Innocent VI II.
This year Innocent VIII. too died; and in
1493 the wicked reign of Alexander VI. and his son
Caesar Borgia began. While they were plotting to bring
over Charles VIII. of France to scourge Italy, Savona-
rola mixed up with his denunciations against the evils
of the times prophecies of impending woes upon Flor-
ence. Then came the armies of France ; The French
friendly relations between the French and The Medici
the Florentines ; the expulsion of the Medici, repubhc're?he
by their aid, from Florence ; the formation stored.
of a republic, under the advice of Savonarola. He de-
clined to hold any office, but his spirit ruled supreme.
Convents were reformed, and the study of the Bible in
the original language made a part of the Savonarola's
duty of the monks. Schools for the educa- refo!ms-
tion of the children of the people were founded ; and
Savonarola went on with his preaching, denouncing the
wickedness of the Church and demanding reform.
In 1495 Pope Alexander VI. thought it was time to
stop so dangerous a preacher. He cited him to Rome,
but the people would not let him go. He offered to make
him a cardinal as the price of his loyalty to Rome,
but he publicly replied that the only red hat to which he
aspired was one red in the blood of his own martyrdom,
74 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
Had Savonarola died in 1495, his name would have
gone down to posterity as that of a reformer singularly
zealous, noble, patriotic, judicious, and practical in his
aims and conduct. But men are not perfect.
He becomes .... . r ' .
fanatical. The zealous brain is apt to take fire, and en-
thusiasm is apt to become fanatical. So it
was with Savonarola. Both he and the people gave way
to excitement. When the time of Carnival came, they
dragged their trinkets, pictures, immoral books, vanities
of all kinds, into the public square, and made a great
bonfire of them. The excitement of the people reacted
on the prophet who had raised it. In his later years (he
lived only to the age of forty-seven), he prophesied more
wildly than ever, thought he saw visions, and did fanati-
cal things which marked a brain fevered and unbalanced.
Be it so ; we are not therefore to forget to pay homage to
the man who, even in these later years, was bold enough
to put the Borgian Pope to well-merited shame, and to
denounce his vices, regardless alike of his bribes or his
threats. That the Pope was powerful enough at length
to put him to silence by imprisonment, to make him con-
fess his heresies by torture, and on his return to them
when the torture was removed, to silence him for ever by
a cruel death, did but cast the halo of martyrdom around
his heroism and make his name immortal.
Is martyred by
order of the He was strangled and burned at Florence
Alexander vi. by order of the Pope in 1498 — by order of that
Pope who had himself committed murder
and sacrilege and unheard-of-crimes, and who five years
after died of the poison prepared, as was said, for another !
(e) Savonarola s Influence on the Revivers of Learning.
Lorenzo had died in 1492, and Savonarola, as we have
said, was present at his death-bed. Pico, who had in-
. r i i i ,-i with Colet
circle of Oxford students zealous for the new and Thomas
learning and those Greek studies on which his ^ore'
own mind was bent. He became known at once to Colet,
Grocyn, and Linacre, and fell in love with More. His
own words will best describe, what he thought of them.
G
82 The Protestant Revolution. pt. h.
' When ' (he wrote in a letter) ' I listen to my friend
* Colet, it seems to me like listening to Plato himself. In
' Grocyn, who does not admire the wide range of his know-
' ledge ? What could be more searching, deep, and re-
' fined than the judgment of Linacre? Whenever did
' nature mould a character more gentle, endearing, and
'happy than Thomas More 's f
During the time he spent at Oxford, he had many
talks and discussions with Colet. He had come to Ox
ford full of the spirit of the revival of learning, but not
yet hating the scholastic system as Colet did,
Comes under J ° J
Coiet's influ- nor ready at once to take to Colet's views on
the need of reform. He had not yet got the
religious earnestness which made Colet what he was.
But Colet's fervour was infectious ; and before Erasmus
left Oxford, he saw clearly what a great work Colet had
begun.
Colet urged him to stay at Oxford, and at once to join
him in his work ; but Erasmus said he was not ready —
he must first go to Italy to study Greek, as others had
done. But, he said, ' When I feel that I have the need-
ful firmness and strength, I will join you.' How effec-
tually he did aid him afterwards we shall presently see.
(e) The Oxford students are scatta-ed till the accession
of Henry VIII. ( 1 500- 1 509 ) .
During the remainder of the reign of Henry VII.
„, , (nine years or thereabouts), the little band
The three v „ J '
friends scat- of Oxford students was scattered.
Erasmus left England in 1 500 for France,
on his way for Italy ; but being robbed of his money by
the custom-house officers at Dover, he was obliged by
poverty to stay in France instead of going to Italy.
Colet went on with his work at Oxford as earnestly as
ch. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 83
ever, till he was made Dean of St. Paul's, and removed
to London.
More worked his way up to the bar in London, be-
came popular in the City, and very early in life went
into Parliament.
The last years of Henry VII. were marked by the
discontent occasioned by the king's avarice.
T . . . Exactions of
His two ministers, Kmpson and Dudley Empson and
tried all kinds of schemes to exact money udley"
from the people without breaking the laws.
'These two ravening wolves' (wrote Hall the chroni-
cler, who lived near enough to the time to feel some of
the exasperation he described) 'had such a guard of false
'perjured persons appertaining to them, which were by
' their commandment empanelled on every quest, that the
' king was sure to win, whoever lost. Learned men in the
' law, when they were required of their advice, would say,
' " To agree is the best counsel I can give you." By this
'undue means these covetous persons filled the king's
' coffers and enriched themselves. At this unreasonable
' and extortionate doing noblemen^-grudged, mean men
' kicked, poor men lamented ; preachers openly, at Paul's
'Cross and other places, exclaimed, rebuked, and de-
' tested; but yet they would never amend.'
The robbing of Erasmus at the Dover custom-house
was an instance of one of these legal robberies. Thomas
More also suffered from the royal avarice. ,r
tt ii! i 11 • More
He was bold enough to speak and vote in offends
Parliament against a subsidy which he Henry VIL
thought was more than the king ought to claim. Where-
upon his father was fined on some legal but unjust ex-
cuse, and he himself had to flee into retirement. He
thought of going into a cloister, and becoming a monk ;
but, under the influence of Colet, who about that time
84 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii,
was made Dean of St. Paul's, and came to live in Lon-
. , don, he married, and waited for better days.
lhe circle . .
ofOxford When Erasmus came to England again in
formed again ^c^. ne found Colet, More, Grocyn, Lin-
in London. acrCj and Lilly (another Oxford student who
had been to Italy), all living in London. They found
him the necessary means for his journey to Italy, and
again he left them, promising to return, and hoping then
to join them in fellow -work.
In 1509, while Erasmus was in Italy, Henry VII. died.
(a7) On the accession of Henry VIII. they coimnence
their fellow-work (1509).
The accession of Henry VIII. seemed to the Oxford
students like the beginning of an Augustan age. The
other sovereigns of Europe, Maximilian of
Hopes on the . T _
accession of Germany, Louis XII. of France, and Ferdi-
cnry " nand of Spain, were old men, and, owing to
their constant wars, poor. Henry VIII. was young and,
thanks to his father's peaceful foreign policy and unjust
exactions, rich. He was, as most young princes are,
popular; every one hoped good things from him. The
imprisonment and execution of Empson and Dudley re-
lieved the people from fear of further exactions. He was
handsome, fond of athletic sports, and, in the early
years of his reign, it must be admitted, generous and
open-handed. A musician, a scholar, and (however fond
of pleasure) neglecting neither study nor business, of
great energy having his eye everywhere and keeping the
reins of government well in his hands, he seemed likely
to make a great and popular king.
By the little band of Oxford students his accession
was hailed with the highest hopes. He was personally
known to some of them, and known to be a friend of the
lh. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 8*
'new learning.' Colet (already Dean of
r- t^ i. v , , The Oxford
St. Pauls) was soon made court preacher, studentsin
Thomas More, to the delight of the citizens Court favour-
of London, was made under-sheriff, and a few years
afterwards, such was the fondness of the king for him,
that, much against his will, he was drawn into the court.
Even the foreign scholar Erasmus was at once recalled
from Rome and settled at Cambridge as Greek profes-
sor. There seemed now to be an open door for Revival
and Reform, and all in the sunshine of the young king's
favour.
(e) Erasmus writes his ' Praise of Folly ' ( 1 51 1 ).
Erasmus, having been to Italy, was now ready to join
Colet heartily in fellow-work. On his way from Italy on
horseback, he planned in his mind, and on his arrival
in London, before going to Cambridge, he wrote in
More's house, his 'Praise of Folly,' a satire in Latin on
the follies of the age, which made his name famous
among the scholars of Europe.
He dressed up Folly in her cap and bells, and made
her deliver an oration to her fellow-fools.
Prominent amongst the fellow-fools were the scholastic
theologians whom Colet had taught him to dislike.
' Folly ' described them as men who were so _ .
J hatire on the
proud that they could define everything, who scholastic
knew all about things of which St. Paul was
ignorant, could talk of science as though they had been
consulted when the world was made, could give you the
dimensions of heaven as though they had been there and
measured it with plumb and line — men who professed
universal knowledge, and yet had not time to read the
Gospels or Epistles of St. Paul.
Monks were described as shut out of the kingdom of
86 The Protestant Revolution. pt. 11.
heaven in spite of their cowls and their ha-
Monks. \fast wjjjje wagoners and husbandmen were
admitted.
'Folly' claimed also among her votaries Popes who
(as Julius II. was then doing), instead of 'leaving all,'
like St. Peter, try to add to St. Peter's patri-
mony, as they called it, fresh possessions
by war, and turn law, religion, peace, and all human af-
fairs upside down.
This bold satire did much to open the eyes of men all
over Europe to the need of reform, turned the ridicule
of the world upon the scholastic theologians and monks,
and as a natural consequence, raised against Erasmus
the hatred of those whose follies he had so keenly sa-
tirized.
This little book written, he went to Cambridge to labour
as Greek professor, and also at another great work of
which we shall have to say more by-and-by — his edition
of the New Testament.
(/) Cole t founds St. Paul's School.
Colet, meanwhile, went on preaching from his pulpit
at St. Paul's. On his father's death he came into posses-
_ , , , sion of his fortune, and nobly devoted it to
Colet founds a J
school of the the foundation of a public school by the
new learning. ,.,, . , _ ,
cathedral — in which boys, instead of being
crammed in the scholastic learning, were to be trained
in the new learning, and instead of being taught the bad
Latin of the monks, were to be taught the pure Latin and
Greek which the Oxford students had imported from
Italy; and lastly, instead of being flogged and driven,
were to be attracted and gently led into the paths of
learning.
ch. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 87
Lilly was appointed schoolmaster. Erasmus and Lin-
acre were set to work to write school-books, and finding
that no one else seemed able to write a Latin Grammar
simple and easy enough for beginners, Colet wrote one
himself. In his preface he said he had aimed, for the
love and zeal he had for his new school, at making his
little book on the eight parts of speech as easy as he
could, 'judging that nothing maybe too soft nor too fa-
miliar for little children, specially learning a tongue unto
them all strange,' and asking them to 'lift up their little
white hands' for him, in return for his prayers for them.
Compare with these gentle words the practice of the
common run of schoolmasters described by Erasmus,
who, too ignorant to teach their scholars properly, had
to make up for it by flogging and scolding, defending
their cruelty by the theory that it was the schoolmaster's
business to subdue the spirits of his boys!
When it was noised abroad that in this new school of
the Dean's, classical Latin and Greek were to be taught
instead of the bad Latin of the monks, and that under the
shadow of St. Paul's cathedral there was thus to be a
school of the new learning, men of the old school of
thought began to take alarm. More had
jokingly told Colet that it would be so, for maiiceSof men
he said the school was like the wooden of theold
school.
horse filled with armed Greeks for the de-
struction of barbarian Troy ; and so the men of the old
school regarded it. In spite of the inscription on the
building —
Schola Catechizationis Puerorum in Christi
Opt. Max. fide et bonis Uteris,
■ — one bishop denounced it openly as a 'temple of ido-
latry,' and the Bishop of London began to contrive how
88 The Protestant Revolution.
PT. II.
to get Colet convicted of heresy, and so a stop put to his*
work.
About this time there was a convocation, and the
Archbishop of Canterbury gave Colet the duty of preach-
ing to the assembled bishops and clergy the
Colet's sermon • TT , ,
on ecdesiasti- opening sermon. He took the opportunity
cai reform. 0f urging, in the strongest and most earnest
manner, the necessity of a radical reform in the morals
of the clergy. He told them to their face boldly thai
the wicked worldly life of some of the bishops and clergy
was far worse heresy than that of poor Lollards, twenty •
three of whom the Bishop of London had just been com-
pelling to abjure, and two of whom he had burned in
Smithfield a few months before.
No wonder the Bishop's anger was kindled still more
against Colet. He and two other bishops of the old
school joined in laying a charge of heresy
chargeeSofr°m a against him before the Archbishop, but the
heresy. latter wisely would not listen to the charge.
So the cause of the new learning prospered during the
early years of Henry VIIL
[g) The Continental Wars of Henry VIII. 1311-1312.
If we look back to the section on Italy, and the sum-
mary there given of Papal and Continental politics, we
shall see that it was in 151 1 and 1512 that Pope Julius
II. was bent upon uniting Spain, England,
The Holy Al- ° ^ % .
liance against and Germany in a war against France. Louis
XII. had got possession of Milan, and was
becoming dangerous. The Pope's object was to drive
Louis out of Italy. Ferdinand of Spain wanted not only
to get rid of the rivalship of France in Italy, but also to
annex the province of Navarre to Spain. Henry VIII.
CH. II.
The Oxford Reformers.
89
^Calais
was tempted to revive
the claims of England
on the Duchy of Gui-
enne, which since the
close of the Hundred
Years' War had been
annexed to the French
Crown. The Emperor
Maximilian was always
anxious to enlarge his
borders at the expense
of France. So these
princes formed what
was called ' the Holy
Alliance,' with the
Pope at their head, against France, and in 151 1 the holy
FRENCH PROVINCES CLAIMED
BY HENRY VIII.
Henry VIII. 's
war began. The campaign of that year
ended in the crafty Ferdinand getting and first campaign.
keeping Navarre, while Henry the Eighth's
invasion c: Guienne miserably failed. His troops mu-
tinied, and returned to England in utter disorder.
In the spring of 1513 preparations were being made
for another campaign on a greater scale. It was in these
preparations that his great minister Wol-
• i tt Wolsey.
sey s great talents came into play. Henry
VIII. had set his heart on a brilliant invasion of France
in order to wipe out the dishonour of the last campaign.
He watched the equipment of his fleet, and ordered Ad-
miral Howard to tell him ' how every ship did sail.'
Just as everything was ready Julius II. died, and the
Cardinal de' Medici, Linacre's fellow-student, whose ac-
quaintance Erasmus had made in Italy, was
elected Pope under the title of Leo X. The ceeded by Leo
new Pope cared for literature and art and
90 The Protestant Revolution. pt. u.
building St. Peter's at Rome more than for war, and ex-
pressed his anxiety to bring about a peace. But Henry
„ TT VIII. had set his heart upon a glorious war,
But Henry . r to »
persists in in- and in spite of the death of the head of the
Holy Alliance, and in spite also of his
father-in-law Ferdinand's hanging back at the last mo-
ment, he was determined to go on. Admiral Howard in
his first engagement with the French, lost his life in a
brilliant exploit, and his crew, disheartened, returned to
Plymouth. But still Henry VIII. set sail with the rest
of the ships for Calais, with ' such a fleet as Neptune
, „ never saw before,' and from Calais he
Gains the Bat- .
tie of the marched his army a few leagues beyond the
French frontier, took some towns of small
importance, and turned the French army to flight at the
Battle of the Spurs.
He did little harm to France or good to England, but
got some sort of a victory, and so gratified his vanity.
There were of course great rejoicings, tourna-
Scotch inva- ...
sionofEng- ments, and pageants, but just in the midst
of them came the news that the Scotch,
always troublesome neighbours in those days, before the
union of the two kingdoms, had, incited by France, taken
the opportunity of Henry VIII. 's absence in France to
invade England, but that through the zeal and energy
of Queen Catherine they had been defeated, and the
Battle of King of Scots himself slain, with a host of
the Scotch nobility, at the Battle of Flodden.
Whereupon Henry VIII., finding nothing better to do,
amid great show of rejoicing returned to England, bent
upon preparing for another invasion by-and-by.
But his father-in-law, Ferdinand, had served him so
badly in these two campaigns — leaving him to bear the
brunt of them, while he contented himself with taking
ch. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 91
and keeping Navarre — that the end of it was a strange
shuffling of the cards. Henry VIII. made Henry VIII.
peace with Louis XII., and England and Franc^against
France combined to wrest back again from sPain-
Spain that very province of Navarre which Henry VIII.
had helped Ferdinand to wrest from France only a few
years before.
In January 151 5 this unholy alliance was broken by
Louis XII. 's death. He was succeeded by Francis I..,
who, eager, like his young rival, Henry
-.tttt • 1 • • t- Louis XII.
VIII., to wm his spurs in a European war, succeeded by
at once declared his intention that the ' mon- Francls L
archv of Christendom should rest under the Francis I.
3 m invades Italy,
banner of France, as it was wont to do ! ' A and recovers
Milan
few months after, he started on the Italian
campaign, in which, after defeating the Swiss soldiers at
the battle of Marignano, he recovered the Duchy of Milan.
Again both Ferdinand and Henry VIII.
were made friends by their common jeal- arfdSpai'rfcom-
ousy of France. It would never do to let pnen|!fainst
France become the first power in Europe.
So during these years, instead of an Augustan age of
peace, reform, and progress in the new learning and
civilization, through the jealousy and lust of
military glory of her kings, stirred up by the kings against
late warlike Pope and his Holy Alliance, g^jj^8*
Europe 'vas harried with these barbarous
wars!
We have seen, in the chapter on France, how hei
• national wars tended to increase the power of the Crown,
and how the fact that the Crown was abso-
lute and backed by its standing army, while tended to
it tended to keep France a united kingdom ^^k^e5
on the map, injured the nation. So it was
92 The Protestant Revolution. pt. i.
The ex- a}so m measure — happily only in measure — -
France. in England. These wars tended to make
the king absolute. To carry them on, not only were all
the hoarded treasures of Henry VII. dispersed, but fresh
taxes were needed ; and when all the taxes were spent
that could be got legally out of votes of Parliament,
Wolsey was driven to get more money by illegal means.
Narrow Had the war-fever gone on a little longer — >
escape of just s0 long as to establish the precedent of
the king's levying taxes without consent of
Parliament — then England might well have lost her
free constitution, just as France had already done. But,
happily, this was not so to be.
In the meantime, let us see how the Oxford Reformers
acted in this crisis of European affairs, how they used all
their influence to set the public opinion of the educated
world against this evil policy of European princes.
C0let Colet preached against the wars to the
a^ast^n people from his pulpit at St. Paul's, and to
wars. the king from the pulpit of the royal chapel ;
and his enemies tried to get him into trouble with the king
for doing so. But Henry VIII., wild as he was for military
glory, was generous enough to respect the sincerity and
boldness of the dean ; and though not wise enough to follow
his advice, refused to stop his preaching. Erasmus made
known to his learned friends all over Europe this bold con-
duct of Colet and his hatred of war. He also, in his
Erasm letters to the Pope, princes, cardinals, bish-
against ops, and influential men everywhere, protest-
them too, . , . .
ed against the false international policy which
sacrificed the good of the people to the ambition of kings,
and also More also made no secret to the king that
More. hg was opposed to his conquering France,
and that he hated the wars.
ch. II. The Oxford Reformers. 93
(h) The kind of Reform aimed at by the Oxford
Reformers.
It so happened that just at this time Erasmus was
invited to the court of Prince Charles of the Netherlands
(afterwards the Emperor Charles V.), and Erasmus
that More was also being drawn by Henry madea
_ J J councillor
VIII. into his royal service. They both at of Prince
length yielded. Erasmus became a privy
councillor of Prince Charles, on condition ^1//™^°
fhat it should not interfere with his literary VIII.'s
■" service.
work. More became a courtier of Henry
VIII. when peace was made with France, on condition
that in all things he should ' first look to God, and after
Him to the king.'
Both Erasmus and More, in thus entering royal ser-
vice, published pamphlets or books containing a state-
ment of their views on politics. Erasmus called his
'The Christian Prince;' More called his a 'Description
of the Commonwealth of Utopia.'
Erasmus, in his ' Christian Prince,' urged that the
Go/den Ride ought to guide the actions of The
princes — that they should never enter upon 'Christian
r J r Prince of
a war that could possibly be avoided, that Erasmus.
the good of their people should be their sole object, that
it was the people's choice which gave a king his title to
his throne, that a constitutional monarchy is much better
than an absolute one, that kings should aim at taxing
their people as little as possible ; that the necessaries of
life, things in common use among the lowest classes,
ought not to be taxed, but luxuries of the rich, and so
on: the key-note of the whole being that the object of
nations and governments is the common weal of the
whole people.
94 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
In the meanwhile. More, in his 'Utopia,' or descrip-
tion of the manners and customs of an ideal common-
More's wealth ( ' Utopia ' meaning ' nowhere ' ) , urged
'Utopia.' just the same points. The Utopians
elected their own king, as well as his council or parlia-
ment. They would not let him rule over anothei
country as well: they said he had enough to do to
govern their own island. The Utopians hated war as
the worst of evils ; the Utopians aimed not at making
the king and a few nobles rich, but the whole people.
All property belonged to the nation, and so all the peo-
ple were well off. Nor was education confined to one
class ; in Utopia everyone was taught to read and write.
All magistrates and priests were elected by the people.
Every family had a vote, and the votes were taken by
ballot Thus the key-note of More's 'Utopia' was, like
the ' Christian Prince' of Erasmus, that governments and
nations exist for the common weal of the whole people.
If we turn back to the description already given of
the two points which mark the spirit of modern civiliza-
tion, and judge these sentiments of Eras-
entered mus and More from that point of view, we
into°thf ly cannot fail to see how thoroughly they en-
spirit of tered into the spirit of the new era, and how
modern r
civilization. correct and far-reaching were the reforms
which they urged upon the public opinion of Europe.
We must not leave the Oxford Reformers without
trying to get a clear idea of the kind of religious reform
which they urged.
We have seen that Colet's object was to set the minds
of men free from the bonds of the scholastic
of their ' system, by leading men back from the
refoSrmUS schoolmen to the teaching of Christ and
His Apostles in the New Testament.
ch. ii. The Oxford Reformers. 95
Erasmus had been all this while labouring hard in
fellow-work with him. He had for years been working
at, and now, in 15 16, published at the printing-press at
Basle, a book which did more to prepare the way for the
religious reformation than any other book m „
0 ... The New
published during this era. This was his Testament
edition of the New Testament, containing,
in two columns side by side, the original Greek and a
new Latin translation of his own. He thus realized a
great object, which Colet had long had in view, viz., not
only to draw men away from scholastic theology, but to
place before them, in all the freshness of the original
language and a new translation, the 'living picture' of
Christ and His Apostles contained in the New Testa-
ment. By so doing he laid a firm foundation for another
great religious reform, viz., the translation of the New
Testament into what was called ' the vulgar tongue ' of
each country, thus bringing it within reach of the
people as well as of the clergy.
'I wish' (Erasmus said in his preface to his New
Testament) 'that even the weakest woman should read
'the Gospels — should read the Epistles of Paul; and I
'wish that they were translated into all languages, so
'that they might be read and understood not only
'by Scots and Irishmen, but also by Turks and Sara-
'cens. I long that the husbandman should sing por-
'tions of them to himself as he follows the plough,
'that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his
'shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their
'stories the tedium of his journey.'
Of course this great work of Erasmus excited the oppo-
sition and hatred of the men of the old school, and espe-
cially of the monks and scholastic divines, to whom the
old Vulgate version was sacred, and Greek a heretical
96 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
tongue. But the New Testament went through several
large editions, and when, a few years after, the learned
men of the Sorbonne at Paris complained of what they
called its heresies, Erasmus was able to reply trium-
phantly, ' You are too late in your objections. You
should have spoken sooner. It is now scattered over
Europe by thousands of copies ! '
One other point we have to fix in our minds — the
attitude of the Oxford Reformers to the ecclesiastical
„,, , . , , system. We have seen that their notion of
The kind of ,. .
ecclesiasti- religion was that it was a thing of the heart
urged byrtie — the love of God and man. They believed
formed Re" tnat it was intended to bind men together
in a common brotherhood, not to divide them
into sects. They complained how rival orders of monks
and schools of theology hated one another. Christians
might differ about doctrines, but they ought to agree in
They aimed the worship of God and in their love of one
and tolerant another. Hence More in his Utopia had
Church. described the Utopians as giving full tolera-
tion to all varieties of doctrines and differences of creeds ;
and pictured all worshipping together in one united and
simple mode of worship, expressly so arranged as to hurt
the feelings of no sect among them, so that they all might
join in it as an expression of their common brotherhood
in the sight of God.
It is clear that, holding these views, they were likely
to urge, as they did earnestly urge, the reform of the
ecclesiastical system, but that if at any time a great
dissension were to arise in the Church, they would urge
that the Church should be reformed and widened so as
to give offence to neither party, and include
And were , ..... , , , . . ,,
likely to op- both within it, and would oppose with all
pose schism. their might anything which should break up
ch. in. The Wittenberg Reformers. 97
its unity and cause a schism. Whether right or wrong,
this would be the course which their own deep convic-
tions would be likely to lead them to take, and this, we
shall see, was the line the survivors of them did take
when the Protestant struggle came on. We say ' the
survivors,' because Colet did not live to work much
longer. Even now, driven into retirement by the perse-
cution of the old Bishop of London, he could do little
but work at his school. And he died in 15 19.
To the beginning of the Protestant movement we
must now turn our attention.
CHAPTER Til.
THE WITTENBERG REFORMERS.
(a) Martin Luther hecomez a Reformer.
Martin Luther was born in 1483, and so was 15 years
younger than Erasmus and Colet, and three „
J & Born 1483.
years younger even than their young friend
More.
His great-grandfather and grandfather were Saxon
peasants, but his father being a younger son had left
home and become a miner or slate-cutter at
Mansfield in Thuringia. Both his parents School°
were rough and hot-tempered, but true and J"^"™"
honest at heart. Though working hard for
a living, they sent their sons to school, and wishing Mar-
tin to become a lawyer, they found means to send him to
the university of Erfurt. There he took his degree of
M. A.
In 1505, in fulfilment some say of a vow made in a
dreadful thunderstorm, when he thought his end was
H
q8 The P?'otestant Revolution. pt. ii.
near, Luther, contrary to his father's wishes,
Becomes a . i i „
monk. left his law studies and entered the Augus-
tine monastery at Erfurt. He inherited the superstitious
nature of the German peasantry. He traced every harm
that came to him through passion and temptation all
alike to the Devil. His conscience was often troubled.
His fasts and penances did not give him peace. He
passed through great mental struggles, sometimes shut
himself up in his cell for days, and once was found sense-
less on the floor. At length he found peace of mind in
the doctrine of 'justification by faith,' i. e., that forgive-
ness of sins, instead of being got by fasts and penances
and ceremonies, is given freely to those who have faith
in Christ. This doctrine he learned partly from the pious
vicar-general c 'the monastery, partly from the works of
St. Augustine, and under their guidance from a "study of
the Bible. From this time he accepted also
Adopts the x
theology of St. other parts of the theology of St. Augustine,
and especially those which, because they
were afterwards adopted by Calvin, are now called ' Cal-
vinistic,' such as that all things are fated to happen ac-
cording to the divine will, that man has therefore no free
will, and that only an elect number, predestinated to
receive the gift of faith, are saved.
It is well to mark here that these Augustinian doctrines
were, in fact, a part of that scholastic theology from
which the Oxford Reformers were trying to
fered fiSS the set men free- In not accepting them they
Oxford Re- differed from Luther. But they and Luther
formers. '
had one thing in common. They alike held
that religion did not consist in ceremonies, but was a
thing of the heart ; that true worship must be in spirit
and in truth.
In 1 508 Luther was removed from Erfurt to the Augus-
CH. III. The Wittenberg Rejor/ncrs. 99
tinian monastery at Wittenberg, and soon T .
1 tt • • Luther re-
after made preacher there at the University moves to Wit-
recently founded by the Elector of Saxony. ten er§'
In 1 5 10 he was sent on an errand for his monastery
to Rome. There he found wicked priests „. . „
1 Visits Rome.
performing masses in the churches, ignorant
worshippers buying forgiveness of sins from the priests,
and doing at their bidding all kinds of penances ; and
he came back zealous, like Colet, for reform, and with
the words 'the just shall live by faith' more than ever
ringing in his ears.
He had been preaching and teaching the theology of
St. Augustine at Wittenberg several years with great ear-
nestness, when in 15 16 he read the new edi-
' -> Reads the New
tion of the New Testament by Erasmus. Testament of
, . Erasmus.
The works of Erasmus had an honourable
place on the shelves of the Elector of Saxony's library,
and his New Testament was the common talk of learned
men at the universities, even at this youngest of them all
— Wittenberg. Luther eagerly turned over its pages, re-
joicing in the new light it shed on old familiar passages;
but what a disappointment it was to him as by degrees
he discovered that there was a great difference betv/een
Erasmus and himself — that Erasmus did not accept those
Augustinian doctrines on which his own faith was built !
He knew that Erasmus was doing a great work towards
the needed reform, and this made it all the more painful
to find that in these points they differed. He was ' moved '
by it, but, he wrote to a friend, ' I keep it to „ .
J > > r Finds out the
myself, lest I should play into the hands of difference in
u- • A/r r- A • -U- A thrr theology.
his enemies. May God give him under-
standing in his own good time ! '
This is a fact that in justice to both should never be
forgotten. Luther was conscious of it from tht first, and
L.ofC.
ioo The Protestant Revolution. pt. II.
it had this future significance, that if Protestantism (as it
afterwards did) should follow Luther and adopt the
Augustinian theology, Erasmus and the Oxford Re-
formers never could become Protestants. Luther might
wisely try to keep it secret, but if matters of doctrine
should ever come to the front, the breach between them
was sure to come out.
(&) The Sale of Indulgences ( 1 5 1 7 ) .
While Luther was preaching Augustinian doctrines at
Wittenberg, and Erasmus was hard at work at a second
edition of his New Testament, pressing More's 'Utopia'
and his own ' Christian Prince ' on the notice of princes
and their courtiers, expressing to his friends at Rome
his hopes that under Leo X. Rome might become the
centre of peace and religion, Europe was all at once
brought by the scandalous conduct of Princes and the
Pope to the brink of revolution.
Leo X. wanted money to help his nephew in a little
war he had on hand. To get this money he offered to
Leo X.'s grant indulgences or pardons at a certain
getmoney°by price, to those who would contribute money
indulgence. to the building of St. Peter's at Rome. The
people were still ignorant enough to believe in the
Pope's power to grant pardons for sins, and there was
no doubt they would buy them, and so gold would flow
into the coffers of Rome. There was one obstacle.
Princes were growing jealous of their subjects' money
~_ . being drawn towards Rome. But Leo X.
Offers princes °
a share in the got over this obstacle by giving them a
share in the spoil. He offered Henry VIII.
one-fourth of what came from England, but Henry VIII.
haggled and bargained to get a third ! Kings had made
themselves poor by their wars, and a share in the papal
CH. III. The Wittenberg Reformers. 101
spoils on their own subjects was a greater temptation
than they could resist.
Erasmus in his ' Praise of Folly ' had described indul>
gences as 'the crime of false pardons,' and
i i t i i i Erasmus
now in every letter and book he wrote he writes bitterly
bitterly complained of the Pope and Princes agamst lt"
for resorting to them again.
He wrote to Colet : — ■
' I have made up my mind to spend the remainder of my life
with you in retirement from a world which is everywhere rotten.
Ecclesiastical hypocrites rule in the courts of princes. The Court
of Rome clearly has lost all sense of shame ; for what could be
more shameless than these continued indulgences 1 '
And in a letter to another friend, he said : —
' All sense of shame has vanished from human affairs. I see that
the very height of tyranny has been reached. The Pope and
Kings count the p>eople not as men, but as cattle in the market ! '
But though Erasmus numbered among his friends Leo
X., Henry VIII., Francis I., and Prince Charles, he
found them deaf to his satire, and unwilling
to reform abuses which filled their treasuries, ^f^
They would not listen to Erasmus. It re- listen-
mained to be proved whether they would listen to Lu-
ther!
(c) Luther's Attack on Indulgences {iS1/-)
Wittenberg was an old-fashioned town in Saxony, on
the Elbe. Its main street was parallel with the broad
river, and within its walls, at one end of it,
Wittenberg.
near the Elster gate, lay the University,
founded by the good Elector — Frederic of Saxony — of
which Luther was a professor ; while at the other end of
it was the palaCe of the Elector and the palace church of
All Saints. The great parish church lifted its two towers
i02 The Protestant Revolution. Ff. lu
from the centre of the town, a little back from the main
street. This was the town in which Luther had been
preaching for years, and towards which Tet-
Tetzel comes ,. . . , .
near, selling zel, the seller of indulgences, now came, just
indulgences. ag he did tQ Qther towns> vending his ' false
pardons ' — granting indulgences for sins to those who
could pay for them, and offering to release from purga-
tory the souls of the dead, if any of their friends would
pay for their release. As soon as the money chinked in
his money-box, the souls of their dead friends would be
let out of purgatory. This was the gospel of Tetzel. It
made Luther's blood boil. He knew that what the Pope
wanted was people's money, and that the whole thing
was a cheat. This his Augustinian theology had taught
him ; and he was not a man to hold back when he saw
what ought to be done. He did see it. On the day be-
fore the festival of All Saints, on which the relics of the
Church were displayed to the crowds of country people
who nocked into the town, Luther passed down the long
street with a copy of ninety-five theses or statements
Luther's against indulgences in his hand, and nailed
against in- them upon the door of the palace church
duigences. ready for the festival on the morrow. Also
on All Saints' day he read them to the people in the
great parish church.
It would not have mattered much to Tetzel or the Pope
that the monk of Wittenberg had nailed up his papers on
He is backed the palace church, had it not been that he
Elector of was backed by the Elector of Saxony. The
Saxony. Elector was an honest man, and had the
good of the German people at heart. Luther's theses
laid hold of his mind, and a few days after it is said that
he dreamed that he saw the monk writing on the door of
his church in letters so large that he could read them
ch. in. The Wittenberg Reformers. 103
eighteen miles off at his palace where he was, and that
the pen grew longer and longer, till at last it reached to
Rome, touched the Pope's triple crown and made it tot-
ter. He was stretching out his arm to catch it when he
awoke ! The Elector of Saxony, whether he dreamed
this dream awake or asleep, was at least wide awake
enough to refuse permission for Tetzel to enter his do-
minions.
Then came a year or two of controversy and angry
disputes ; and just at the right time came Philip Melanch-
ihon, from the University of Tubingen, to „, .,.
J ° Philip
strengthen the staff of the Elector's new Melanch-
University at Wittenberg — a man deep in lowSten^
Hebrew and Greek, a half-disciple of Eras- berg-
mus — already pointed out as likely to turn out ' Erasmus
II.,' of gentle, sensitive, and affectionate nature, the very
opposite of Luther, but yet just what was wanted in
another Wittenberg Reformer — to help in argument and
width of learning ; to be in fact to Luther, partly what
Erasmus had been to Colet. In the weary and hot dis-
putes which now came upon Luther, Melanchthon was
always at his elbow, and helped him in his arguments ;
while the fame of Luther's manly conduct and Melanch-
thon's learning all helped to draw students to the Uni-
versity from far and near, and so to spread the views of
the Wittenberg Reformers more and more widely.
[d) The Election of Charles V. to the Empire (ijiq).
Suddenly, in 15 19, the noise of religious disputes was
drowned in the still greater noise of political excitement
Maximilian died, and anew Emperor had to ^ , ,
1 Death of
be elected. Prince Charles, who was now Maximilian.
King of Spain also, wanted to be Emperor ; for tne
so did Francis L, though a Frenchman ; so EmPire
104 The Protestant Revolution. pt. h.
did Henry VIII., claiming that, though England was not
a subject of the Empire, the English language was a
German tongue, while French was not. The princes
of the Empire wanted the Elector of Saxony to be Em-
peror, but he was the one man who cared most for the
interests of Germany, and had least selfish ambition.
It was a question which of the three princes could
bribe a majority of the seven Electors. Henry VIII. did
not risk enough to give himself a chance. It was not
really likely that, however much they might
elected be bribed, the Electors, who were all Ger-
through the . . , . „ ,
influence of man princes, would choose a Frenchman.
ofWny" The Elector of Saxony practically decided
the election in favour of Prince Charles.
The following letter of Erasmus, who was a councillor of
Prince Charles, will show what manner of man the good
Elector was.
'The Duke Frederic of Saxony has written twice to me in reply
to my letter. Luther is supported solely by his protection. lie
says that he has acted thus for the sake rather of the cause than of
the person (of Luther). He adds, that he will not lend himself to
the oppression of innocence in his dominions by the malice of those
who seek their own, and not the things of Christ.' . . . 'When the
imperial crown was offered to Frederic of Saxony by all (the Elec-
tors), with great magnanimity he refused it, the very day before
Charles was elected. And Charles never would have worn the im-
perial title had it not been declined by Frederic, whose glory in re-
fusing the honour was greater than if he had accepted it. When he
was asked who he thought should be elected, he said that no one
seemed to him able to bear the weight of so great a name but
Charles. In the same noble spirit he firmly refused the 30,000 flo^
rins offered him by our people (i. c. the agents of Charles). When
he was urged that at least he would allow 10,000 florins to be given
to his servants, " They may take them" (he said) "if they like, but
no one shall remain my servant another day who accepts a single
CH. III.
The Wittenberg Reformers.
*°5
piece of gold." The next day he took horse and departed, lest
they should continue to bother him. This was related to me as
entirely credible by the Bishop of Liege, who was present at the
Imperial Diet.'
Would that Charles V. had followed throughout his
reign the counsels of the good Elector to whom he owed
his crown ! Charles's grandfather, Ferdinand, had died
only a few months before, and he was himself in Spain,
settling the affairs of his new kingdom, when he was
elected. We have now to mark what power had fallen
into the hands of this prince of the House of Hapsburg.
On the map are distinguished the Austrian, Extent of
Burgundian, and Spanish provinces which Charles v.'s
came under his rule. We must remember,
too, how the ambition cf Spain was to increase its Ital-
io6 The Protestant Revolution. pt. n.
tan possessions, and that, as head of the ' Holy Roman
Empire,' he was also nominally King of Italy!
{e) Luther s Breach with Rome (1520).
While these political events had been absorbing atten-
tion, the religious disputes between Luther and the papal
party had been going on.
They had this singular effect upon Luther :
Luther finds , / , . & , , . \
nimseif a they drove him to see that his Augustmian
views were identical with those of Wiclif and
Huss. He was astonished, as he described it, to find
chat 'lie was a Hussite without knowing it; that St. Paul
and Augustine were Hussites !'
The fact was that Wiclif and Huss, like Luther, had
in a great degree got their views from the works of St.
Augustine : ihey had so adopted many of the doctrines
which belonged to what we have said is now called the
Calvinistie theology.
This discovery hastened on his quarrel with the Pope.
The Pope and Councils had denounced Wiclif and Huss
as heretics ; therefore Popes and Councils were not in-
fallible. This was the conclusion to which
Rumoured Pa- .
pal Bull against Luther came. Luther had declared himself
a Hussite, therefore the papal party con-
tended he must, like Huss, be a heretic; and the long
continuance of the Hussite wars being taken into account
he must be a dangerous heretic. So the Pope made up
his mind to issue a Papal Bull against Luther.
When rumours of this reached Luther, so far from be-
ing fearful, he became defiant. He at once wrote two
pamphlets.
The first was addressed ' To the Nobility of the German
nation.' It was published, in both Latin and German, in
uri. in. The Wittenberg Reformers. 107
1520, and 4,000 copies were at once sold.
If we bear in mind what has already been phietTo^he"1"
said in the section * On the Ecclesiastical "obility off.the
German nation
System,' the chief points of the pamphlet
will be easily understood.
The gist of it was as follows : —
' To his Imperial Majesty and the Christian Nobility of the Ger-
man nation, Martin Luther wishes grace, &c. The Romanists have
raised round themselves walls to protect themselves from reform.
One is their doctrine, that there are two separate estates; the one
spiritual, viz. pope, bishops, priests, and monks; the other secular,
viz. princes, nobles, artisans, and peasants. And they lay it down
that the secular power has no power over the spiritual, but that the
spiritual is above the secular; whereas, in truth, all Christians are
spiritual, and there is no difference between them. The secular
power is of God, to punish the wicked and protect the good, and so
has rule over the whole body of Christians, without exception, pope,
bishops, monks, nuns and all. For St. Paul says, ' Let every soul
(and I reckon the Pope one) be subject to the higher powers.'
[Luther was writing this to the secular princes, and they were likely
to listen to this setting up of their authority above that of the clergy.
He was writing also to the German nation, and he knew well how
to catch their ear too.] ' Why should 300,000 florins be sent every
year from Germany to Rome ? Why do the Germans let themselves
be fleeced by cardinals who get hold of the best preferments and
spend the revenues at Rome ? Let us not give another farthing to the
Pope as subsidies against the Turks ; the whole thing is a snare to
drain us of more money. Let the secular authorities send no more
annates to Rome. Let the power of the Pope be reduced within
clear limits. Let there be fewer cardinals, and let them not keep
the best things to themselves. Let the national churches be more
independent of Rome. Let there be fewer pilgrimages to Italy.
Let there be fewer convents. Let priests marry. Let begging be
stopped by making each parish take charge of its own poor. Let
us inquire into the position of the Bohemians, and if Huss was in
the right, let us join with him in resisting Rome.'
io8 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
And then, at the end, he threw these few words of defi<
ance at the Pope : —
' Enough for this time ! I know right well that I have sung in a
high strain. Well, I know another little song about Rome and hei
people ! Do their ears itch? I will sing it also, and in the highest
notes ! Dost thou know well, my dear Rome, what I mean? '
His other pamphlet — his ' other little song about Rome '
— was an attack upon her doctrines. It was entitled
' On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church,'
Another pam- . . . , , . . t . r
phlet on the and in it he repeated his condemnation of
Captivityof indulgences, denied that the supremacy of
the Church.' the pope was of divine right, declared the
Pope a usurper, and the Papacy the kingdom of Baby-
lon ; and then, turning to matters of doctrine, boldly re-
duced the sacraments of the Church, by an appeal to
Scripture, from seven to three — Baptism, Penance, and
the Lord's Supper. He ended this pamphlet in as defiant
a tone as the other. 'He heard' (he said) 'that Bulls
' and other terrible Papistical things were being prepared,
'by which he was to be urged to recant or be declared a
' heretic. Let this little book be taken as a part of his
'recantation, and as an earnest of what was to come ! '
While the printing-press was scattering thousands of
copies of these pamphlets all over Germany, in Latin for
The Bull tne learned, and in German for the corn-
arrives. mon people, the Bull arrived, and the
Elector of Saxony was ordered by the Pope to deliver
up the heretic Luther. The question now was, What
would Luther do with the Bull, and the Elector with
Luther?
(/) The Elector of Saxony consults Erasmus,
December 6, 1 520.
Much at this moment depended on what the good
Elector of Saxony would do. Well was it that the fate
en. in. The Wittenberg Ref owners. 109
of Luther lay in the hands of so conscientious a prince.
He and his secretary Spalatin were at Cologne, where
Charles V., after his recent coronation, was holding his
court. Melanchthon and Luther were in constant corres-
pondence with Spalatin. Melanchthon wrote that all
their hopes rested with the prince, and urged Spalatin to
do his best to prevent Luther being crushed, — ' a man,1
he said, ' who seemed to him almost inspired, and
whom he dared to put not only above any other man
of the age, but even above all the Augustines and
Jeromes of any age ! ' So enthusiastic a disciple of the
bold Luther had the gentle Melanchthon become!
Spalatin did his best.
Aleander, the Pope's nuncio, and supposed author of
the ' Bull,' was at Cologne, wild against Luther and
doing all he could to get the Emperor to make common
cause with the Pope. He knew that the Elector of
Saxony stood in the way, and did his best
. , . t- • ,- Aleander,
to win him over. Erasmus, being one of the Pope's
the Emperor's council, also was there, and "" win over5
Aleander knew that he, too, was against thf% Elector
' ' & of baxony.
the crushing of the poor monk, and if he
could have bribed him over with a bishopric, or secretly
poisoned him, there is evidence that it would most likely
have been done. The Elector was bent upon doing what
was right and best for Germany and for Christendom,
and anxious to have the advice of the best and the
wisest men upon the course he should take. Erasmus
had written to the Wittenberg Reformers, praising their
zeal, but advising more gentleness. Melanchthon had
sent the letter from Erasmus to the good Elector,
who now wanted to consult Erasmus confidentially him-
self. Spalatin managed the interview. It was in the
Elector's rooms at the inn of 'The Three Kings' that
i l o The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
they met, the Elector, Erasmus and Spalatin. The
Elector asked of Erasmus through Spalatin, in Latin, aa
they stood over the fire, 'What he really thought of
Luther?' and fixed his eyes eagerly upon
The Elector 3 S y *
asks advice him as he waited for an answer. Erasmus
of Erasmus. sai<^ ^.^ a smiie, ' Luther has committed
two crimes! He has hit the Pope on the crown and
the monks on the belly.'
This was exactly the truth. The Elector's dream had
come true. Luther's great pen had reached to Rome
and touched the Pope's triple crown. Leo X. was a sort
of patron of Erasmus, but that did not hinder Erasmus
from condemning the Bull. The monks were his old
enemies, bitter against the new learning, haters of him-
self and Colet as well as Luther, because they saw their
craft was in danger as men's eyes became more and
more opened. Therefore Erasmus could afford to smile
a bitter sarcastic smile at the expense of both Pope and
monks. Before he left he wrote down on paper a short
The advice statement of his opinion that the monks'
of Erasmus. hatred of the new learning was at the bot-
tom of their zeal against Luther, whilst only two uni-
versities had condemned him; that Luther's demand to
be properly heard was a fair one ; and that being a man
void of ambition, he was less likely to be a heretic. At
all events the views of Luther's opponents were worse
than his ; all honest men disapproved of the Bull ; and
clemency was what ought to be expected of the new
Emperor.
While thus he spoke in favour of fair dealing with
Luther, he at the same time found much fault with Lu-
„,, „, ther's violent way of going to work and his
The Elector J to &
follows it. abusive language. The result of the inter-
view was reported to Luther. Melandithon and he were
ch. in. The Wittenberg Reformers. in
well satisfied with the advice given by Erasmus. They
considered that it had great weight in strengthening the
Elector in favour of Luther. At all events the Elector
followed it in two points — he remained firm in defence
of Luther, and at the same time he wrote and recom-
mended to Luther more of that gentleness the want of
which had displeased Erasmus.
(g) Luther burns the Pope's Bull, December 10, 1520.
Perhaps the advice of the Elector to Luther came just
too late ! The meeting with Erasmus at the inn of the
' Three Kings ' at Cologne was on December 5. In the
meantime Luther had been making up his mind what to
do, and on the 10th he did it, we may suppose before the
posts from Cologne had reached him.
Excited, and as Melanchthon said, seeming almost
inspired, conscious of right and also of power, Luther
wished all Europe to see that a German monk could dare
to defy the Pope. Had there been a mountain at Wit-
tenberg he would have lit his bonfire on the top, and let
the world, far and near, see the Pope's Bull blaze in its
flames. But there was not even a hill in that T ,
Luther
flat country. So in solemn procession, at bums the
the head of his fellow-doctors and the stu-
dents of the university, he marched through the Elster
gate, and there, outside the city walls, in presence of the
great German river Elbe, he burned the Bull, and as
many Roman law books as he could find. His burning
the Bull against himself was a personal act of defiance.
His burning the Roman law books was a public decla-
ration that the German nation ought not to be subject to
the jurisdiction of Rome. Amid the cheers of the crowd,
Luther returned to his rooms. That a man of hot tem-
per, fastening by his daring act the eyes of all Europe
ii2 The Protestant Revolution. pt. it.
upon himself, assuming as it were the leadership of a na-
tional crusade against the Pope of Rome, should be for
the moment carried away by excitement into extrava-
gance was only natural. Luther was in fact greatly
excited, and on the next day, in his crowded lecture-
room, let himself utter wild words, declaring that those
who did not join in contending against the Pope could
not be saved, and that those who took delight in the
Pope's religion must be lost for ever. He then wrote an
abusive reply to the Bull, hurling all sorts of bad names
against the Pope, and pushing his Augustinian doctrines
to so extreme a point as to amount to fatalism.
Grand as is the figure of Luther on the page of history,
as, in December 1520, he dared to make himself the
mouth-piece of Germany, demanding reform, threatening
revolution if reform could not be had, it must be admitted
Erasmus that ne was Paying with nre- Was not the
fears revolu- tram aiready laid for revolution ? Will not
tion. J
such wild words lead to still wilder acts of
the ignorant peasantry ? Sober-minded lookers on, like
Erasmus, feared this. He had feared from the first that
Luther's want of discretion might bring on a ' universal
revolution,' and had therefore urged moderation. Instead
of moderation had come still wilder defiance. ' Now,'
he wrote, ' I see no end of it but the turning upside down
' of the whole world. . . . When I was at Cologne I
' made every effort that Luther might have the glory of
' obedience and the Pope of clemency, and some of the
' sovereigns approved this advice. But lo and behold,
'the burning of the Decretals, the "Babylonish captivi-
< ty;" those propositions of Luther, so much stronger
'than they need be, have made the evil apparently
incurable.'
ch. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 113
CHAPTER IV.
THE CRISIS. — REFORM OR REVOLUTION. — REFORM
REFUSED BY THE RULING POWERS.
(a) Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen.
The fears of Erasmus were well founded. There were
wilder spirits in Germany than Luther.
Not far north of Worms, where the first Diet of the
Emperor Charles V. was going to meet, was the castle
of Ebernburg, where the bold knight Franz von Sickingen
had gathered round him the chiefs of these wild spirits.
Franz himself was a wild lawless knight, liv-
0 The Robin
ing upon private war, hiring out himself and Hoods of
his soldiers to fight out private quarrels, and, sjde with
like his relative Goetz von Berlichingen, Luther-
popular because of his bravery and rough justice.
Goetz and Franz might be said to be in many respects,
the Robin Hoods of Germany.
Such a man as Franz was sure to side with Luther
though he had already engaged himself and his soldiers
for hire to the Emperor Charles V. One of his guests at
the castle was Ulrich von Hutten, a knight uirich von
like himself, but there was this difference Hutten-
between them. Hutten's pen was his lance. Placed
like Erasmus in his youth in a cloister, he too had torn
himself from it and taken to a literary life. Not so
learned, but with even keener wit than Erasmus, neglect,
poverty, and suffering had embittered more his wild war-
like spirit. His pen was ever ready to be dipped in gall,
and following the example set by Erasmus in his * Praise
of Folly, 'he tried to mend the world by satire. His satire
He had been to Rome, and in Latin rhyming uPon Rome-
verses he held up her vices to scorn, He pointed out
114 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
in these rhymes how German gold flowed into the coffers
of the ' Simon of Rome.' He sneered at the blindness
and weakness of the German nation in letting them-
selves be the dupes of Rome. When Luther came upon
the scene, Hutten's heart was stirred. He made his re-
solve to rush into the fight against Rome The fears and
tears of his family could not stop him. He was disin-
herited for doing it, but do it he must. Hitherto his
rhymes had been in Latin, and thus only read by the
learned. Henceforth he would write in German for the
Fatherland.
In Latin hitherto I've written,
His German . „ ,. ,
p0pUlar A tongue all did not understand : —
rhymes Now call I on the Fatherland,
Rome. The German nation, in her mother tongue,
To avenge these things.
' Germany must abandon Rome. Liberty for ever !
The die is cast.' This was the cry of his popular Ger-
man rhymes.
To Luther he held out the hand of devoted friend-
ship :—
Servant of God, despair not !
Could I but give a helping hand,
Or in these matters counsel thee,
So would I spare nor goods
Nor my own blood !
And on the eve of the Diet of Worms he issued his
' Complaint and exhortation against the extravagant and
unchristian ft owe} of the Pope,' in rhyme, in which he
exposed the tyranny, wealth, worldliness, and cost to
Germany of Rome, and tried to lash up the German peo-
ple into rebellion against it. Now was the time to free
Germany from the Roman yoke. He ap-
freedom from pealed to the Emperor as the natural leader
of the German nation. It would redound
ch. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 115
to his honour. He alone should be the captain.
All free Germans would serve with gladness the sa-
viour of their country. ' Help, worthy king, unfurl the
' standard of the eagle, and we will lift it high. If warn-
' ings will not do, there are steeds and armour, halberts
1 and swords, and we will use them ! '
There was something pathetic in this cry of the Ger-
mans to their Emperor. The very peasants of the
' Btmdschuh ' we saw would have made him their leader,
had he listened to their appeal against their feudal op-
pressors, and now the German nation was beseeching
him to head their rebellion against Rome ! These were
but outbursts of a general yearning for unity among the
German people. They felt the necessity of central
power as the only cure for the evils under which they
suffered, and now when the quarrel of Luther and the
Pope had brought ecclesiastical grievances to the top,
the question was whether Charles V., in his first Diet,
would side with the German nation, or sell the German
nation for his own selfish objects to the Pope !
Meanwhile appearances were ugly. Luther wrote to
Spalatin : ' I expect you will return with the stale news
that there is no hope in the court of Charles.' Smau chances
Erasmus wrote : ' There is no hope in of reform.
Charles; he is surrounded by Sophists and Papists.'
But Hutten hoped against hope. Such men are san-
guine. If Charles would do his duty to Germany in the
Diet of Worms, all might be well. If not, Hutten was
ready for revolution. Sickingen had soldiers ; with the
pen and the sword they would rise in rebellion.
[b) The Diet of Worms meets 28th fanuary, 1321.
Let us, for a moment, leave these wilder spirits and
try to understand what it was that the mere sober-
1 1 6 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
minded of the German people expected from the Diet of
Worms.
Happily there is among English State papers a copy
of ' Agenda,' or as it is headed, ' A memory
'Agenda' at ° . . y
the Diet of of divers matters to be provided in the pre-
Worms. ^ -,-.. , ru7 ,
sent Diet of Worms.
The following are the chief heads, and in these we
cannot fail to recognize what in former chapters we have
found to be the real grievances of the German nation.
(i) To make some ordinance that no man without
consent of the Emperor and Electors shall for any per-
Tostoppn- sonal cause presume to declare war as in
vate war. times past. On this the cities and towns are
determined to stick fast.
(2) To settle certain disputes between various parties.
T . ,. (There be above thirty bishops at variance
putes. with their temporal lords for their jurisdic-
To provide tion.)
frtheEmWer (3) The EmPeror t0 provide a vicar and
peror's ab- council in his absence. If the Duke of
Saxony will not take the charge, there will
be great difficulty in finding one who will please the
generality, for enmities are so numerous.
(4) To take notice of the books and descriptions made
by Friar Martin Luther against the Court of Rome. The
Martin which Friar Martin, of the Elector of
Luther. Saxony and other princes is much favoured.
We have here a list of the chief grievances before
noticed. (1) The evil of the constant private wars rf
the nobles, especially to the commerce of the towns
(2) The constant quarrels between the civil and eccle-
siastical powers. (3) The want of a central govern-
ment. (4) The Lutheran complaints against Rome.
Only the grievances of the poor peasants find no voice!
en. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 117
Perhaps it was not likely they should. They had no
friends at court. They had tried to make their voice
heard sword in hand, and had not their re- „ ,
No hope
bellions been quelled and their standard of for the
the Bundschuh trodden in the dust ? Had pea~
not even Joss Fritz been lost sight of for years ? It was
not their silent grievances, but the more noisy ones
which were to be heard at the Diet.
The Diet was opened by Charles V. on the 28th
January, 1521.
The first business was the appointment of a Council
of Regency to manage the affairs of the Empire during
the Emperor's projected absence in Spain. Then came
the establishment of an imperial chamber, and the
granting of an impost or tax to defray the expenses of
the government.
These political matters were proceeding, when one
day in February on which a tournament was to be held
and the Emperor's banner was hoisted
r Brief from
ready for the lists, the princes were called Rome about
together to hear read a brief just arrived
from Rome. This brief exhorted the Emperor to add
the force of law to the Pope's Bull against Luther by an
imperial edict. The Emperor had now an opportunity
of showing that the unity of the Church was as dear to
him as to the Emperors of old. He wore the sword in
vain if he did not use it against heretics, who were far
worse than infidels. So urged the Pope. The Emperor
had already had Luther's books burned in the Nether-
lands, and he now produced to the princes an edict
commanding the rigorous execution of the Bull in
Germany. He was evidently ready to yield to the
wishes of the Pope, but it was needful to consult the
Electors. Some of the Electors were of course not pre-
n8 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
, m pared to accept the proposal of the Empe-
The Electors r r j i ^^ I
hesitate to ror. In order to persuade them, Aleander,
cdict'against tne papal nuncio, delivered at another ses-
Luther. sjon Qf tne Diet a speech nine hours in
length, in which he inveighed against the heresi'es of
Luther, urged that he should be condemned unheard,
and declared that ' unless the heresy were stopped,
Germany would be reduced to that frightful state of
barbarism and desolation which the superstition of
Mahomet had brought upon Asia.' The Electors
seemed to be swayed by his eloquence. They cared
little for Luther's doctrinal heresies, nay, they were
willing to sacrifice the heretic if the grievances of the Ger-
man nation against Rome could but be remedied. But
these grievances were too real to be passed over so easily.
The Diet, after further delay, appointed a committee
to draw up a list of these grievances. Meanwhile the
speech of Aleander had been reported to Hutten, who
was staying, as we said, at the castle of Franz von
Sickingen, a few miles from Worms. It
Hutten ad- °
jures the stirred his wrath to think of Luther's being
Emperor not , , . , . A .
to yield to condemned unheard. At once, on the spur
Rome. Qf tne moment, he dipped his pen in gall,
and wrote letters of violent invective against the papal
nuncio and the bishops assembled at Worms. One of
them was addressed to the Emperor, declaring that the
hope of Germany had been that he would free her from
the Romish yoke and put an end to the papal tyranny,
and contrasting with these high hopes ' so great an Em-
peror, the king of so many peoples, cringing willingly
to slavery, without waiting even till he is forced.'
' What ! ' he exclaimed. ' has Germany so ill deserved of thee that
with thee, not fighting for thee, it must go to the ground ; lead us
into danger! Lead us into battle and fire! Let all nations unite
CH. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 119
against us, all peoples rush upon us, so that at least we may prove
our courage in danger! Don't let us, cringing and unmanly, with-
out battle, lie down like women and become slaves ! '
Such was the shrill cry of scorn which the course
things were taking at Worms called forth from Hutten.
When the list of grievances was brought in at a future
sitting of the Diet, the debate was resumed. The com-
plaints against Rome were so strongly put that they
made a deep impression on the Diet. The Electors re-
covered from the effects of the nuncio's speech. The
Prince Electors who sided with Luther urged that ' it
' would be iniquitous to condemn a man without hearing
* him, and that the Emperor's dignity and piety were
' engaged that, should Luther retract his errors, those
' other matters should be recognized on which he had
' written so learnedly and Christianly, and that Germany
' should, by the authority of the Emperor, be freed from
' the burdens and tyrannies of Rome.' They urged also
the necessity of granting Luther a safe-conduct, and sum-
moning him to appear before the Diet to defend himself.
The Emperor gave way, and on March 6 the sum-
mons and safe-conduct were issued, and an _ ,
Luther
imperial herald sent to bring Luther to summoned to
,.,,. Worms.
Worms.
(c) Luther s journey to Worms (1327).
The herald arrived at Wittenberg, and on April 2
Luther set out for Worms.
That he went with his mind fully made up not to give
way or patch up his quarrel with the Pope was shown by
this. He left in the hands of Lucas Cranach, T ,
. Luther s
the great painter of Wittenberg, a series of Antithesis
wood-cuts prepared by Cranach, with expla- and Ami-
nations in German at the foot, added by chnst-
120 The Protestant Revolution. Pi. n.
himself, depicting the Antithesis, or Contrast between
Christ and the Pope. It was, in his own words, ' a good
book for the laity.'
He and Hutten, to widen the circle of their readers,
and make their appeals to the Fatherland heard by all
classes, had scattered their pamphlets in German all
over Germany. Luther now called in the aid of these
wood-cuts to make his appeal still more popular and
telling on the multitude.
Luther had found himself, to his own surprise, following
in the track of the Hussites of Bohemia. He had openly
avowed it. Indeed, he seems to have been fond of
copying some of their acts, perhaps to mark the identity
of his object with theirs. They had commenced with
burning the Papal Bull, and so had Luther. It was re-
corded in the Hussite chronicles that one of the things
which roused the people in Bohemia against the Pope
was the painting by tow Englishmen on the walls of an
inn at Prague of two pictures, one representing Christ
entering Jerusalem meek and lowly, on an ass ; the
other the Pope proudly mounted on horseback, glitter-
ing in purple and gold. Luther and Cranach had un-
proved upon this example, and produced a series of
wood-cuts with a precisely similar intention.
Christ refusing a crown was contrasted with the Pope
in his tiara. Christ in the crown of thorns, being beaten
and mocked, was contrasted with the Pope on his throne,
in all his magnificence. Christ washing the disciples'
feet was contrasted with the Pope holding out his sacred
toe to be reverently kissed by his courtiers. Christ heal-
ing the sick was contrasted with the Pope watching a
tournament. Christ bending under the burden of his
Cross was contrasted with the Pope borne in state on
men's shoulders. Christ driving the money-changers out
CH. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. i - 1
of the temple was contrasted with the Pope selling his
dispensations, and with piles of money before him.
Christ's humble entry into Jerusalem was contrasted with
the Pope and his retinue in all their glory, but the road
they are travelling is shown in the background of the
picture to lead to hell. Finally, the Ascension of Christ
is contrasted with the descent of the Pope, in his triple
crown and papal robes, headlong under an escort of de-
mons and hobgoblins, into the flames of the bottomless pit.
That he left behind him this 'good book for-the laity,'
to be published in his absence, was a mark of the defiant
spirit in which he went to Worms. But underneath this
spirit of defiance, it must never be forgotten, was a deep
feeling that he was fighting in the cause of God. ' My
dear brother,' he said to Melanchthon, in parting, ' if I
do not come back, if my enemies put me to death, you
will go on teaching and standing fast in the truth ; if
you live, my death will matter little.'
Amidst the tears of his friends, he stepped into the
covered wagon and commenced his journey. Others,
too, thought he was going out to his death. _ ,
' & fob Luther sets
At one place which he passed there was a off for
, , , . ... . Worms.
priest who kept, hanging up in his study, a
portrait of Savonarola. He took down the picture from
the wall and held it up in silence before Luther. Luther
was moved. 'Stand firm,' said the priest, 'in the truth
thou hast proclaimed, and God will as firmly stand by
thee.' The journey took him twelve days. „. .
■His journey.
He had to pass through Erfurt, the scene of
his mental struggles. He spent a night at the old con-
vent, and the next day, contrary to the terms of his safe-
conduct, fearlessly preached in the little church of the
convent to crowds of people. Earnest tender words
were his that day, setting forth that true religion is a
122 The Protestant Revolution. pt. H.
thing of the heart, and not of ceremonies or penances,
moving multitudes to tears, and making converts. In
the midst of it a portion of the crowded building gave
way, and people were terrified by the crash. In his wild
imagination he set it down to Satan trying to hinder him.
All through his journey he seemed to meet with the
Devil at every step. If he was fatigued and ill, it was
Satan who brought him low ; but, he wrote from Frank-
fort to Spalatin, ' Christ lives, and we will enter Worms
in spite ot all the gates of Hell and the powers of the
air ! '
These things did but prove his sense of the importance
of the work in which he was engaged. His wild enthu-
siasm grew out of what was true heroism. The noise,
the worship of the crowd, the danger and. excitement,
would have turned the head of any mere enthusiast.
When men are excited they must needs do strange
things ; and of course on this journey to Worms strange
things were done. At one place a parody on the Litany
was produced, like the parodies made by modern revo-
lutionary agents: — 'Have mercy upon the Germans.
' From the tyranny of the Roman Pontiff deliver the Ger-
' mans. From the insatiable avarice of the Romans
' deliver the Germans. That Martin Luther, that upright
' pillar of the Christian faith, may soon arrive at Worms,
'we beseech Thee to hear us. That the zealous German
'Knight, Ulrich Hutten, the defender of Martin Luther,
'may persevere in upholding Luther, we beseech Thee to
'hear us,' and so on. Of course, wherever the procession
stopped at night the inns were full ; there were crowds,
Popular vulgar merry-making, and music. Luther
excitement. himself played upon his flute, and doubtless,
as his enemies reported, there was no lack of jollity over
the beer. All this was in the very nature of things. The
CH. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution, 123
point to mark is this — it did not turn the head of
Luther.
When news of the enthusiasm occasioned by Luther's
progress to Worms arrived at the city, the papal party
became alarmed. Charles V. sent his private confessor
with messages of compromise, but Luther refused to lis-
ten till he reached Worms. It was well he did, for the
safe-conduct was nearly expired, and there was danger
of treachery. Luther's friends, too, became alarmed.
Even Spalatin was afraid of his life if he entered Worms,
and reminded him of the fate of Huss, whose safe-con-
duct availed him little. Luther's noble reply was, ' Huss
was burned, but not the truth with him.' He afterwards
told the Elector of Saxony, when recalling Luther's he-
to mind his own marvellous courage, ' The rolc firmness-
'Devil saw in my heart that even had I known that
' there would be as many devils at Worms as tiles upon
'the house-roofs, still I should joyfully have plunged in
' among them ! '
As he drew near the city, six knights and a troop of
horsemen of the princes' retinues went out to meet him ;
and under their escort, the Emperor's herald He enters
leading the way, and a great crowd drag- ormb'
gling through the streets beside him, in his covered wag-
on and monk's gown, Luther entered Worms.
[d) Luther before the Diet.
The next day, towards evening, he was brought before
the Diet. The Emperor presided. Six Electors were
present, and a large number of archbishops, Luther's first
bishops, and nobility — about two hundred ^foreThe6
in all. There was a pile of Luther's books Diet-
on the table.
The official then formally put to Luther two questions:
124 The Protestant Revolution, PT. il
' Do you acknowledge these books to be yours ? ' 'Do
you retract the heretical doctrines they contain ? '
Luther replied, ' I think the books are mine ; ' and,
He asks for afur the titles had been read over, ' Yesf
d"rhis an-151" the books are mine.' As to the second
swer- question, he said it would be rash for him to
reply before he had had time for reflection.
The papal party, who had expected to find Luther
raging like a lion, began to think he was going to give
way. His deportment had been meek and modest. The
vounsr Emperor turned to one of his cour-
Theygive [. & H.
him till the tiers and said, This man will never make
a heretic of me.' Luther's request for time
was allowed till the next day, and on condition that he
gave his reply viva voce.
He was taken back to his inn. People did not know
what to make of it. Some thought he would retract.
But, in the din and bustle around him, Luther wrote a
letter to one of his friends. ' I write to you from the
' midst of the tumult. ... I confessed myself the author
' of my books, and said I would reply to-morrow touching
'my recantation. With Christ's help, I shall never re-
' tract one tittle ! '
That night there was excitement and noise in the
Excitement streets ; quarrels between opposing parties in
in Worms. the crowd, and soldiers rushing about.
The next day Luther prepared himself. He was heard
to pray earnestly, and had his Bible open before him.
At four o'clock the herald came to bring him before the
Diet. The streets were full of people, and spectators
looked down from the tops of the houses as the herald
led him through passages and private ways to escape
the crowd. It was dark before they reached the hall,
and torches were lit. As Luther walked up the hall
CH. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 125
several noblemen met him with encouraging words,
amongst whom was the old General Frundsberg, of
whom we shall hear more hereafter.
The hall was crowded, and some time was lost before
the Princes and Electors were settled in their places.
The official at length — two hours after
time — Opened the proceedings. second ap-
pearance
' Martin Luther, yesterday you acknowledged the be/ore the
books published in your name. Do you retract
those books or not? . . . Will you defend all your writings or dis-
avow some of them ? '
Luther replied, in a speech which seemed to his ene-
mies long and rambling ; but according to his own and
Spalatin's version of it, the pith of what he said was
this: —
' Most serene Emperor! Illustrious Princes, &c, — At the time
fixed for me yesterday evening I am here, as in duty bound, and I
pray God that your Imperial Majesty will be pleased
to listen, as I hope graciously, to these matters of Speech.
justice and truth. And should I from inexperience
omit to give to any one his proper titles, or offend against the
etiquette of courts, I trust you will pardon me, as one not used to
them.
' I beseech you to consider that my books are not all of the same
kind.
' (1) There are some in which I have so treated of faith and
morals that even my opponents admit that they are worthy to be
read by Christian people. If I were to retract these, what should I
do but — I alone, among all men — condemn what friends and foes
alike hold to be truth !
' (2) Others of my books are against the papacy and popish
proceedings — against those whose doctrine and example have wasted
and ruined Christendom, body and soul. This no one can gainsay,
for the experience of all men, and the complaints of all, bear
witness that through the laws of the Pope and the teaching of men
the consciences of the faithful have been vexed and wronged, and
126 The Protestant Revolution. FT. II*
the goods and possessions of this great German nation by faithless
tyranny devoured and drained — yes, and will without end be
devoured again ! . . . . Now if I were to retract these, I should
do nothing but strengthen this tyranny. To its vast unchristian
influence I should not only open the windows but the door also,
so that it would rage and spoil more widely and freely than it has
ever yet dared to do. Under cover of this my recantation, the
yoke of its shameless wickedness would become utterly unbearable
to the poor miserable people, and it would be thereby established
and confirmed all the more if men could say that this had come
about by the power and direction of your Imperial Majesty, and of
the whole Roman Empire. Good heavens ! what a great cloak of
wickedness and tyranny should I be !
' (3) The third kind are those books which I have written against
some private persons, as, for instance, against those who have
undertaken to defend the Roman tyranny, and to oppose what I
thought to be the service of God, against whom I know I have been
more vehement than is consistent with the character and position of
a Christian. For I do not set myself up as holy. I do not, however,
dispute for my own life, but the doctrine of Christ. I cannot
retract even these books, but I am ready to listen to anyone who,
can show me wherein in these books I have erred.'
Here Luther paused. He had spoken in German
with, as he thought, modesty, but with great fervour and
determination. The perspiration stood on his brow, he
was exhausted with the effort of speaking : but when
the Emperor, who hardly understood German, ordered
him to repeat what he had said in Latin, after whisper-
ing to a privy counsellor of the Elector of
Repeats his ° , , , , . , , ,
speech in Saxony, who stood by him, he obeyed, and
repeated his words in the language which
not only Charles but the papal nuncio could understand.
And now, as they understood more fully what he said,
the anger of the papal party was naturally more kindled.
When he had done, the orator of the Court, betraying
his hostility by his manner, declared that Luther's an-
CH. iv. The Crisis— Reform or Revolution. 127
swer was not a fair one. They were not there to dispute
about things that had long ago been settled by Councils,
He demanded a plain, ungarnished answer. Would he
recant or not?
Luther replied : — ■
' Well, then, if your Imperial Majesty requires a plain answer,
I will give one without horns or teeth ! It is this ; that I must be
convinced either by the testimony of the Scriptures
or clear arguments. For I believe things contrary recant,
to the Pope and Councils, because it is as clear as
day that they have often erred and said things inconsistent with
themselves. I am bound by the Scriptures which I have quoted ;
my conscience is submissive to the word of God : therefore I may
not, and will not, recant, because to act against conscience is unholy
and unsafe. So help me God ! Amen.'
One other attempt was made to get him to yield, but
in vain, and night coming on, the Diet was adjourned
to the following morning, to hear the decision of the
Emperor. The princes retired through the dark streets
to their several inns ; Luther to his. Frederic of Saxony
sent for Spalatin and expressed his approval of Luther's
conduct, except that perhaps he had spoken too boldly.
Next morning, the 19th April, the Emperor sent to the
princes a message written by his own hand, in French,
declaring his intention to proceed against
& r# ° , The Emperor
Luther as an avowed heretic, and calling decides against
, . , . Luther.
upon the princes to do the same. An at-
tempt was then made by the papal party to induce the
Emperor to rescind the safe-conduct of Luther. The
precedent of Huss was cited. 'Why should not Luther,
with Huss, be burned, and the Rhine receive the ashes
of the one as it had those of the other? This proposal
met with strong opposition from the princes, and was
negatived.
i^8 TJie Protestant Revolution, pt. ii.
But while these discussions were going on in the Diet,
murmurs were heard out of doors. The proposal to
withdraw the safe-conduct roused the righteous indigna-
__ . tion of men like Hutten to the point almost
Threats of r
revolution. of frenzy. A placard was found posted on
the walls of the Town Hall, stating that 400
knights and 8,ooo foot were ready to defend Luther
against the Romanists. It had no signature, but under-
neath were written the ominous words, 'BundschuJi,
Bundsckuh, Bundsckuh? Rumours came of murmurs
and movements of the people in distant parts of Ger-
many. Franz von Sickingen, a few miles off the city,
was said to be prepared to take to the sword, and the
rumours of this inspired terror in the minds of the papal
party, as it gave some colour of likelihood to the threats
of Hutten and the placard.
Under the influence of the fears thus excited, the
Electors prevailed upon the Emperor to give
urge delay. a few days more for a further attempt to
shake Luther's firmness.
All was done that could be done to shake it, but with-
out avail. Luther's mind was made up. Let the Pope
and the Emperor do their worst, he would stand by his
conscience and the Scriptures. At last, on the 26th of
T , , April, he received orders from the Emperor
Luther leaves *■
Worms. to depart on the following day. Twenty-one
days were given him for his return to Wit-
tenberg, and on the morrow, escorted as before by the
imperial herald, Luther left the crowded streets of Worms
and commenced his journey homewards.
He left Worms the hero of the German
What Luther . . .
had done at nation. He single-handed had fought the
GennTny01" battle of Germany against the Pope. He
had hazarded his life for the sake of the
en. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 129
Fatherland. It was this which made Luther's name a
household word with the Germans for ages to come.
There is no name in the roll of German historic heroes
so German, national, and typical as Luther's.
But Luther fought a battle at Worms not only for
Germany but Christendom — not only against the Pope,
but against all powers, religious or secular,
01 and for
who seek to lay chains upon the human Christen-
mind and to enthrall the free belief of the om"
people. Against the Emperor as well as the Pope,
against all powers that be, he asserted the right of free-
dom of conscience.
(c) Edict against Luther.
No sooner had Luther left Worms than the papal
nuncio set himself to work to perfect his triumph. Lu-
ther had not recanted, therefore the Emperor must issue
an edict against him.
The threatenings of Hutten had at first made the
papal party nervous. They thought that he and Sick-
ingen had really ready a force of soldiers to Fears of the
make good their threats. Everywhere the papal party*
feeling of the German nation in favour of Luther and
against the Pope was apparent, and nowhere more so than
at Worms. They felt themselves on dangerous ground.
Luther, a few days before leaving the city, wrote an
address to the German princes, containing an account of
the proceedings at the Diet. This was soon scattered
over Germany by the printers, and, just as the minds of
the Germans were thus excited in favour of Luther, the
rumour spread from city to city, that in spite of his safe-
conduct, Luther was captured and had been Rumours of
cruelly treated. Popular indignation was Luther's
1 . c . . -, capture.
thus roused ; murmurs rose against the Em-
130 The Protestant Revolution. pt.il
peror among the princes as well as the common people.
Again the papal party feared nothing less than a general
riot against the emperor and his ecclesiastical advisers,
headed by Hutten and his friends.
But at length news came that Luther was safe in
friendly hands, having been secretly carried off to the
castle of the Wartburg, in Thuringia, and kept there in
safety by his own friends. As the days went by, the
papal party gathering courage, began to laugh at Hutten's
threats as bluster, and strained every nerve to hasten on
the issue of the imperial edict against Luther.
The Elector of Saxony saw the turn things were tak-
ing. He saw that Charles was won over by the Pope.
The Elector He wrote to his brother that it was not only
Jeaves°ny ' Annas and Caiaphas, but Pilate and Herod
Worms. also,' that had combined against Luther,
and not caring to remain where he could do no good, he
left Worms.
In fact Aleander, the papal nuncio, had triumphed.
On May 8 a treaty was signed between Charles V. and
the Pope, in which they mutually promised
tween to have the same friends and the same
andthe enemies, the Pope agreeing to side with the
Pope. Emperor, and to exert all his powers to
drive the French out of Milan and Genoa, and the Em-
peror, as the price of the Pope's alliance, promising to
employ all his powers against Luther and his party.
Aleander had triumphed, and accordingly prepared an
edict against Luther. It required some cleverness to get
The edict the sanction of the Electors. The edict was
agafnst Lu- produced and read unexpectedly in the Era-
ther- peror' s own apartments to such of the Elec-
tors as remained in Worms, and received their hasty
approval without discussion. The next Sunday, as
ch. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 131
Charles V. was in church, Aleander brought the official
copies, and then and there obtained the imperial signa-
ture. He took care to date the edict on May 8, 1 521 , i.
e., on the day when the treaty with the Pope was signed,
though it was not really signed till some days after, and
in the meantime the Elector of Saxony had left.
The secretary of Charles V., Valdez, a friend of Eras-
mus, writing from Worms on May 13, 1521, to a Spanish
correspondent, concludes his letter with these remarka-
ble words :
' Here you have, as some imagine, the end of this tragedy, but I
am persuaded it is not the end but the beginning of it. For 1
perceive the minds of the Germans are greatly exas-
perated against the Romish See, and they do not Valdez the
seem to attach much importance to the Emperor's Emperor's
edicts ; for since their publication, Luther's bookr
are sold with impunity at every step and corner of the streets and
market-places. From this you will easily guess what will happen
when the Emperor leaves.
' This evil might have been cured with the greatest advantage to
the Christian Republic, had not the Pontiff refused a genera")
council, had he preferred the public weal to his own private inter-
ests. But while he insists that Luther shall be condemned and
burned, I see the whole Christian Republic hurried to destruction
unless God himself help us. Farewell.'
The secretary of Charles V. naturally laid all the
blame on the Pope. He little knew how much his mas-
ter also was to blame. The Elector of Saxony was not
far wrong when he hinted that if the Pope and his nun-
cios were acting the part of Annas and Caiaphas,
Charles V. was acting the part of Pilate and Herod.
Let us try to unravel the entangled skein of political
motives which influenced his conduct and his treaty
with the Pope.
»3<
The Protestant Revolution. PT. II.
{/) Political reasons for the decision at Worms.
' We have seen how the great continental struggle had
long been between France and Spain, and how Italy
was the battle-field ; how both claimed Naples and
Milan ; how France had been the first to invade Italy ;
how France and Spain at one time agreed
Rivalshipbe- ,■*■,,, i ~
tween Spain to share Naples between them ; how France
and France. ^ Milan> and then> after the twQ had quar.
relied over the prey, Spain got Naples ; how then they
had joined again with the Pope and Germany in the
league of Cambray against Venice ; and how, l istly, the
robbers quarrelling again o/er the spoil, the Pope united
Spain, Germany, and England with himself in a holy
league to drive France out of Italy, and so France again
lost Milan. Then came the succession of young Francis
I. to the throne of France, his boast that he would make
France the master of Europe, as she was wont to be, his
brilliant campaign of 151 5 in which he gained the battle
of Marignano against the Swiss, and soon after recovered
Milan. Then came the struggle for the Empire, and
the beginning of the ascendancy of Spain in Europe by
Charles V.'s accession to the German throne.
In the political combinations which followed, it was
the fate of Francis to be left out in the cold. Leo X.
T . . was anxious to league himself in close alli-
Intngues of m °
princes. ance with Charles V., and by his aid to
France the drive the French out of Italy. Henry VIII.
ene^yofthe was a*so exceedingly anxious to form a
Pope Spain close alliance with Charles V. His mar-
and England.
riage with Charles' aunt, Catherine of Arra-
gon, was already a link between England and Spain.
Henry wanted to bring about another by a contract of
marriage between Charles V. and the young Princess
ch. iv. The Crisis — Reform or Revolution. 133
(afterwards queen) Mary, although she was already en-
gaged to the Dauphin of France. Charles V., in his
turn was equally anxious to form such alliances as would
strengthen his position against France. He was jealous
of the conquests of Francis I. in Italy, and as Emperor
of Germany considered himself entitled to Milan, which
Francis had conquered. An alliance, therefore, with
the Pope and England against France was most to his
purpose, but it did not suit his purpose that Henry VIIL
should know it.
All the princes were playing a double game and trying
to outwit one another. Henry coquetted with Francis in
order to make Charles fall in with his wishes out of jea-
lousy. Charles was coquetting both with France and
England, proposing marriage with a French princess
while he was negotiating with Henry respecting the Prin-
cess Mary, and worst of all, while he really intended to
marry the Infanta of Portugal. He cared far more for
Spain than he did for Germany, and by this match he
hoped to unite some day Portugal and Spain. Henry
VIIL devised an interview with Francis. Charles was
jealous and came over to England. After this meeting
with Charles, Henry embarked for France, and met Fran-
cis on what, from the grandeur of the preparations, was
called the ' Field of the Cloth of Gold.' Immediately
afterwards he again met Charles at Gravelines, and did
his best to secure his object with Charles while he kept
Francis in the dark. But Charles chose a little longer to
play fast and loose.
In the meantime the Pope also was playing a double
game. Whether to ally himself with Francis, who was
preparing his army for another descent upon Italy, or
with Charles V. and Henry VIII. against Francis, he
kept an open question, though his preference was for the
134 The Protestant Revolution. pt.il
latter plan, if only he could bring Charles V. to his
terms ; the chief of them being that Charles should help
him to put down the heretic Luther.
The course which things took at the Diet of Worms
was ruled by these political intrigues.
The papal party triumphed. The Emperor, as we
have seen, concluded an alliance on May 8 with the Pope
against France and against Luther.
The consequence was that Europe was to be given
over once more to the ambitions and wars of its rival
„ „ princes. All chances of reform, for the pre-
Reform re- x A
fused by sent, were gone. The Diet of Worms came
powersinf?om to an end without having accomplished the
motives. work which Germany expected from it.
Worst of all, the Emperor, instead of siding
with Germany against the Pope, had chosen for his pri-
vate purposes to side with the Pope against Germany.
It is true a council of regency had been established,
with the Elector of Saxony at its head, to manage the
affairs of the Empire while the Emperor was busied with
quelling a rebellion in Spain, and with his wars in Italy.
But no decisive steps had been taken to stop those private
wars which were the curse of Germany, and of which the
cities so bitterly complained. No decisive steps had been
taken to remedy the ecclesiastical grievances of which
the princes complained. The grievances of the much
enduring peasantry had not even been talked of. And
as the worst sign of the times, Luther had been con-
demned by both Pope and Emperor.
The fears of Erasmus were fulfilled, and his bitter
words justified by the result. 'Ecclesiastical hypocrites
reign in the courts of princes . . . The Pope and Prin-
ces treat the people as cattle in the market.'
The reform, both of the Oxford and of the Wittenberg
CH. v. Revolution.
'35
Reformers, had been refused by the ruling powers.
There was nothing left but revolution.
CHAPTER V.
REVOLUTION.
(a) The Prophets of Revolution {1J22).
The edict of the Emperor issued at the Diet of Worms
was published all over Germany. But the papal party
were astonished to find how very little peo- „ , „
A Popular feel-
pie thought of it. The Germans thought a ing against the
great deal more of the bold conduct of Lu-
ther. So that the end of it was that the edict was treated
with very much the same neglect as the Pope's Bull.
Luther's books were burned in some places under the
eye of the Emperor, Everywhere else they were read all
the more.
And another thing happened which the papal party
had not foreseen. They had for the moment silenced
Luther. He was safe in the castle of the Luther in the
Wartburg, and silent, too, albeit he was Wartburs-
hard at work at what would do more to spread the spirit
of reform than anything else, viz. translating the Bible
into the mother tongue of the Fatherland.
Meanwhile the absence of Luther from his wonted
place at Wittenberg did not take away the firebrand as
they thought it would, but put it in the hands
- . 1 t t * , -i ... In his absenc
of the mob. In Luther s absence wilder wilder spirit,
spirits came to the top. Monks left the con- toke the leacL
vents and went to trades. Under the leadership of
Carlstadt, the form of public worship was changed. Ex-
cited and half-crazy men, carried away by their zeal, set
136 The Protestant Revolution. ft. 11.
themselves up as prophets and preached strange doc*
trines.
At Zwickau, under the range of the Erzgebirge, south
of Wittenberg, near Bohemia, lived a weaver of the
name of Claus Storch. He and some of his comrades
fancied they were inspired. They mistook their own ex-
cited imaginations for messages from
JfhzJickau?tS heaven. They wanted no priests, for they
were themselves prophets, no Bible, for they
were themselves inspired, and they went about preach-
ing violent changes, and exciting the crowds who lis-
tened to them to violent deeds.
Driven away from Zwickau by the authorities, some of
them came to Wittenberg, where the people were already
making great changes under the leadership of Carlstadt.
Carlstadt was carried away by their zeal, and so were the
people. Riots were raised. People went about smash-
ing the images in the churches, and even Melanchthon,
in Luther's absence, was half inclined to believe in the
prophets, though they preached the uselessness of learn-
ing and universities.
These things came to the ear of Luther in his retreat
at the Wartburg. He at once saw how all this delusion
_ and madness would injure the cause of the
Luther comes J
back to Wit- Reformation. At the risk of his life he left
his place of concealment. He suddenly ap-
peared at Wittenberg in his old pulpit. He entreated
his old flock to calm their excitement ; and not without
avail. After ten months' absence, the familiar sound of
his voice soothed their passions. They recognized him
once more as their leader.
The prophets came to visit him — and this is a proof
of their sincerity — expecting him at once to admit their
claims. Luther did not doubt that they were inspired,
ch. v. Revolution. 137
but warned them lest their inspiration should and confronts
come from Spirits of Evil. One of them, the prophets,
with the voice and tones of an enthusiast, stamping
his feet, and striking his hands on the table, gave vent
to his horror at the suggestion ; and then, gathering
up his dignity, in a tone which almost shook the com-
mon sense of Luther, said solemnly, ' That thou mayst
know, O Luther, that I am inspired by the Spirit of God,
I will tell thee what is passing in thy mind.' And then as
Luther, really for the moment half carried away by his
impressive manner, was beginning to waver, 'It is ' (he
added), ' That thou art ready to think that my doctrine
is true.' To which Luther, suddenly re- His common
covering himself replied, ' The Lord rebuke sense Prevails-
thee, Satan ! The God whom I worship will soon put a
stop to your spirits.' And with these parting words he
dismissed the prophets^of Zwickau.
Order was restored at Wittenberg. The Scriptures
were again acknowledged as the rule of faith, and be-
fore the end of the year the New Testa-
.... . . , _ The prophets
ment was published in the German tongue, driven from
The Lutheran Reformation was severed for
ever from the wilder reforms of Carlstadt and the
prophets of Zwickau ; and the latter were soon driven
from Wittenberg, to spread their doctrines in other
places where there was no Luther to withstand them.
One of the disciples of Storch at Zwickau was Miinzer,
but instead of going to Wittenberg, he went
first into Bohemia, and then all over that becomes the
part of Germany where Joss Fritz had been. of°hee
He became very soon the prophet of the Peasantfy-
peasantry.
We must look even upon Miinzer as honest and
sincere, though wild. He thought himself inspired, and
l$8 The Protestant Revolution. pt. II.
preached like a prophet. Along with many reforms
which Luther also urged, he claimed for the people the
right of having divine worship performed in their own
language instead of in the Latin of the priests. He
preached a crusade against all who opposed the gospel,
and urged a resort to the sword if preaching would not
do. Driven from city to city, he went more and more
among the peasants; and who shall blame him if he
took up their grievances ? Was it not natural ? His
own father, it is said, had fallen a victim to a quarrel
with his feudal lord. He began to think himself the
chosen messenger of heaven to avenge their wrongs ;
and as he preached from place to place amongst the
peasantry, and others like him followed in his track, it
was not strange if it stirred up again in the minds of the
disciples of Joss Fritz recollections of the days of the
Bundschuh.
[b) The end of Sickingen and Hut ten, ( 1 523).
The council of regency appointed at the Diet of
Worms to represent the Empire during the Emperor's
absence in Spain (whither he had gone to quell a rebel-
lion of his subjects) was made up of princes who had
more or less sympathy with Luther.
Frederic :; Saxony was at the head of it. It was the
nearest approach Lo a central government which had
m, „ ., been formed. It was thoroughly German
The Council . . . %
of Regency and national in spirit, and aiin^U at tho-
Elector of roughly national objects. It aimed not at
ftrfvePto carrying out the edict against Luther, but at
avert the obtaining from future diets those reforms
which had been refused at Worms. It
aimed at putting down private wars and the establish-
ment of public peace.
lh. v. Revolution. 139
But it had no power at its back to carry out its inten-
tions. Its efforts to obtain something like union among
the powers of Germany in the work of reform were
fruitless ; and so were its efforts to put down private
wars.
Knights like Franz von Sickingen saw in it an attempt
of the princes to put down the influence of their order.
Its attempt to obtain the means to pay for national ob-
jects by a system of customs — duties on luxuries im-
ported into Germany from abroad — was ,
r * but meets
taken by the merchants of the towns to be with oppo-
an invasion of their rights. So it was un-
popular and powerless, though its intentions were
good.
Its powerlessness to preserve the public peace was
soon shown in a great private war which was waged by
Franz von Sickingen in 1522-3 against the £™n.z von
0 J J ° Sickingen
Archbishop of Treves. The knight besieged takes to the
Treves with his army of 5,000 foot-soldiers sw r '
and 1,500 knights, and declared that he came to bring
the people freedom from the Pope and priests, and to
punish the archbishop for his sins against God and the
Emperor.
What could be a stronger example to the peasantry
to take to the sword than such an act of the popular
knight !
He counted upon the people of the town aiding him
from within the walls, but was disappointed. The city
held out till some neighbouring princes came to its rescue
with an army of 30,000 men. On their approach, Franz
retired to his castle of Landshut, there not being time to
reach that of Ebernburg. There he was himself be-
sieged. The cannon of the princes were powerful enough
to batter down the solid walls, which before the use of
[40 The Protestant Revolution. pt. 11,
. , , , artillery would have been impregnable. Hd
but is defeated J r &
and killed. held out for months, till at last a solid towei
- fell into a heap of ruins, and a breach was
made in the walls. Franz himself was wounded and
dying when his conquerors entered the castle. They
upbraided him for disturbing the peace of the Empire,
'I am going,' he said, as he lay upon the floor, dying,
, , . 'to render an account to a greater than the
Hutten s death. te
Emperor;' and soon after he expired. His
friend Hutten died in the same year, while trying to urge
other knights to aid Sickingen, and this was the end of
the knights of Ebernburg Castle.
They had threatened to reform the Empire by the
sword. The peasantry had looked to them as their best
knightly friends. They had done much by their pens
and swords, their voice and example, to stir up warlike
„,, feeling among the peasantry, but their end
I he peasantry ° © I J '
got nothing came before the peasants had got any help
knights. from them. In the meantime it was also
clear that the council of regency was unable
to preserve the public peace, as well as to bring about
the needed reform.
If help was to come neither from the Emperor and the
council of regency, nor from the knights, where were the
peasantry to turn next? Was not the time ripe for
rebellion ?
(c) The Peasants' War (1525).
We must turn again to the map on which are marked
the districts where lay the smouldering embers of the
Bundschuh, waiting only for the match to light them up
again. On the opposite map are marked the districts in
which, one after another, the explosions came. The
connexion between the two maps will be seen at a
ch. v. Revolution. 141
glance. Joss Fritz had kept the embers alive by his se-
cret work in Swabia. The expulsion of Carlstadt from
Wittenberg had sent him into the towns on the Rhine
and in Franconia to stir up discontent and a spirit of re-
bellion, not only against Rome, the priests and monks,
but also against Luther, through whose in-
fluence he had been expelled. Miinzerhad Mtii^erstirup
been driven from city to city, and thence rebelllon-
into Southern Germany, to carry on the
work of stirring up rebellion.
The train was indeed laid, and in November, 1524,
the match was put to it in the very places where it
was laid the deepest. The match was a little thing.
The much-enduring peasantry of Swabia, and most of
all, those about the Boden See (Lake Constance) needed
but the last straw to break the back of their endurance.
It was a holiday, and the peasants on the estates of the
Count von Lupfen were resting at home or taking the
day for work on their own land. Orders came from the
Count that they should turn out and gather
snail-shells for the folk at the Castle. It was of thepeasant-
the very littleness of the thing which made ^ in Swabia.
it so unbearable. They rose up in arms, and so did
their neighbours in the valleys round. Soon all Swabia
was in insurrection.
The council of regency sent ambassadors to mediate
between the peasants and their lords of the Swabian
League. But it was of no use. They had not power to
keep the public peace. Neither party listened to them.
The peasants put forth twelve articles in which they
stated their demands. Here, in brief, is a list of
them. A mere glance will show that they were the old
demands of the days of the Bundschuh, with a few
additions.
142 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
1. The right to choose their own pastors.
2. They would pay tithe of corn, out of which the pastors
should be paid, the rest going to the use of the
Their twelve parish. — But small tithes, i.e., of the pro-
articles, duce of animals, every tenth calf, or pig, or
egg, and so on, they would not pay.
3. They would be free, and no longer serfs and bondmen.
4. Wild game and fish to be free to all.
5. Woods and forests to belong to all for fuel.
6. No services of labour to be more than were required
of their forefathers.
7. If more service required, wages must be paid for it.
8. Rent, when above the value of the land, to be prop-
erly valued and lowered.
9. Punishments for crimes to be fixed.
10. Common land to be again given up to common use.
11. Death gifts (/. e., the right of the lord to take the best
chattel of the deceased tenant) to be done away
with.
12. Any of these articles proved to be contrary to the
Scriptures or God's justice, to be null and void.
From this list of most substantial grievances we may
well gather what the peasants were aiming at. We see
Not likely to now they aimed, like simple men, at the re-
b.e granted by mc-val of the practical grievances and hard-
nobles, or ' ships of their life. But their demands were
Luther. ,, ... . , .
not at all likely to be granted. For instance,
if they had the choice of pastors they would choose men
like Miinzer, and Carlstadt, and Storch, and perhaps
even wilder spirits than these, so that neither the Pope
nor Luther would be likely to concede that demand.
Nor, of course, would the proud feudal lords like to lose
their game and the forced labour of their serfs, and to
meet their peasants on equal terms as free men, any more
ch. v. Revolution.
*43
than the slave-holders of America liked to have slavery
abolished. We may guess, too, how the ecclesiastics
would tremble to hear of their small tithes being taken
away, and other pastors being chosen instead of
themselves.
Had the feudal lords granted proper and fair reforms
long ago, they would never have heard of these twelve
articles. But they had refused reform, and they now had
to meet revolution. And they knew of but one way of
meeting it, namely, by the sword.
The lords of the Swabian League sent their army of
foot and horsemen under their captain, swab;an
George Truchsess. The poor peasants could peasants
not hold out against trained soldiers and cav- April 1525.
airy. Two battles on the Danube, in which thousands
of peasants were slain, or drowned in the river, and a
third equally bloody one in Algau, near the Boden See,
crushed this rebellion in Swabia, as former rebellions
had so often been crushed before. This was early in
April 1525.
But in the meantime the revolution had spread further
north. In the valley of the Neckar a body of 6,000
peasants had come together, enraged by the news of the
slaughter of their fellow peasants in the south of Swabia.
The young Count von Helfenstein, a friend of the Arch-
duke Ferdinand, who had married a natural daughter of
the late Emperor Maximilian, lived at the castle in the
town of Weinsberg, in this district. He seems to have so
far lost his head in these days of tenor as to have cut the
throats of some peasants who met him on
the road. This enraged them the more. The orTthe^ '
town and castle were stormed and taken by April^'
the peasants, under their leaders, Florian I525-
Geyer, Wendel Hipler, and Little Jack Rohrbach. The
144 The Protestant Resolution, pt. n.
Count offered a large sum of money for a ransom, but
the stern reply of the peasants was, 'he must die though
he were made of gold.'
While the peasants were plundering the castle, the
monastery, and the houses of the priests, the leaders
held a council. Hipler advised moderation. He hoped
that the smaller lords would, after all, side with the pea-
sants. But Little Jack was a man of another kind. In
the dead of night he held a council of his own, and
doomed every knight and noble in Weinsberg to imme-
diate death. As day was breaking the Count and other
noble prisoners were led forth, surrounded by a circle
of pikes with their steel points inward. The tears and
pleadings of the Countess, with her babe in her arms,
availed nothing. The peasants stood in two opposite
ranks, with a passage between the points of their pikes.
A piper of the Count mockingly led the way, inviting
his late master to follow on a dance of death. The
Count and nobles were compelled to follow. The ranks
closed upon them, and they were soon pierced to death.
A wild peasant woman stuck her knife into the Count's
body, and smeared herself with blood. And so, un-
„. , known to the other leaders and to the mas-
lhc peasants
revenge for ses of the peasantry, ' Little Jack,' on that
slaughter. terrible morning, had revenged the thou-
sands of his comrades slain by the Swabian
lords, blood for blood.
A yell of horror was raised through Germany at the
news of the peasants' revenge. No yell had risen when
the Count cut peasants' throats, or the Swabian lords
slew thousands of peasant rebels. Europe had not yet
learned to mete out the same measure of justice to noble
and common blood. But the eye of history cannot so be
blinded. It records that about a month after, Truch'
ch. v. Revolution. 145
sess, the captain of the Swabian League, _ ,. .
1 j j r n i-ii The retaliation
came northwards, and fell upon this band of the nobles,
of peasants with his more disciplined sol- ay I525
diers and horsemen. One night, after a bloody battle,
in which several thousand peasants were slain, the piper
of Weinsberg was recognized amongst the prisoners — he
who had piped to the dance of death at the murder of the
Count von Helfenstein. Truchsess and the new Count
von Helfenstein, who was with him, had him fastened
with an iron chain about two feet long to an apple tree.
With their own hands they and other nobles helped to
build up a circular pile of wood round their victim, and
then they set fire to the pile. It was night ; and amid
the groans of wounded and dying peasants on the battle-
field around them, and the drunken revelry of the camp,
was heard the laughter of these nobles as they watched
their victim springing shrieking from point to point of the
fiery circle within which he was slowly roasted to death.
Such was the revenge of nobles upon peasants.
But the revolution spread, and the reign of terror
spread with it. North and east of the valley of the
Neckar, among the little towns of Franconia,
. . ., ,, r-iAT- 1 , , Insurrection in
and in the valleys of the Maine, other bands Franconia.
of peasants, mustering by thousands, de-
stroyed alike cloisters and castles. Two hundred of
these lighted the night with their flames during the few
weeks of their temporary triumph. And here another
feature of the revolution became prominent. The little
towns were already, under the preaching of Carlstadt
and such as he, passing through an internal
Revolution in
revolution. The artisans were rising against the towns of
the wealthier burghers, overturning the town
councils, and electing committees of artisans in their
nlace, making sudden changes in religion, putting down
146 The Protestcmt JkevoLUiion, pt. n.
the Mass, unfrocking priests and monks, and in fact, in
the interests of what they thought to be the gospel, turn-
ing all things upside down.
A few extracts from the di.u\ of a citizen of the free
imperial fortified town of Rotheriburg, on the Tauber,
may serve to fix on the mind a clear impression of the
Peasants' War, as it seemed to a citizen of a Franconian
town during the course of the events which he noted in
his log-book in this terrible year 1525.
March 19. — The Carlstadt sect being favoured by
citizen of tne magistral >, Carlstadl himself came to Rothen-
Rothenburg. burg, preached here, and wanted to become a citizen.
March 21. — Thirty or forty peasants bought a kettle-drum and
went about proudly, insolently, and mischievously, up and down
the city.
March 23. — About 400 peasants assembled.
March 24. — All citizens were called to the Rathhausand enjoined
to stand by the honourable council. Only twenty-six do so! The
rest elect a committee of thirty-six. Messengers are sent to the
peasants to inquire their plans. The peasants replied that they were
not all collected yet. Letters come from Markgraf Casimir, and
are read to the people, offering help, and to come in person to make
peace. Some of the people treated the message with scorn and
laughter.
This evening, between five and six, the head of the image of
Christ on the Cross is struck off, the arms broken and the pieces
knocked about the churchyard.
March 25. — The committee of thirty-six frighten the council
into submission.
March 26, Sunday. — The priest driven from the altar and his
mass book thrown down. The peasants deploy themselves before
the Galgen-thor.
March 27. — The priest insulted, and his book thrown down
whilst performing mass.
March 28.— 700 peasants assembled, and force other peasants ta
join them.
ch. v. Revolution. 147
March 31. — The peasants have increased to 2,000. Lorenz
Knobloch having promised to be a captain, has gone out to them.
Messengers from the Imperial Council came to make peace, but
without result.
April 4. — The oil lamps thrown down during the sermon. The
peasants go about plundering cupboards and cellars.
April 8, Good Friday. — The service done away. No one sang
or read. But Dr. Drechsel preached against emperor, king, princes
and lords, spiritual and temporal, for hindering the word of
God.
April 10, Easter Day. — Hans Rothfuchs called the sacrament
idolatry. No service.
April 11. — Dr Caristadt preached against the sacrament. At
night the Kupferzell (cloister) sacked by some millers, and tables
and pictures thrown into the Tauber.
April 12. — Declarations made that priests may marry.
April 13. — Dr. Caristadt preached again against the sacraments
and ceremonies.
April 14. — Some women run up and down the streets with forks,
pikes, and sticks, making a row and declaring that they will plunder
all priests' houses.
April 15. — Priests are obliged to become citizens for safety.
Every citizen to give a gulden towards the watch, also take his turn
at working at the fortifications.
April 18. — The peasants demand 200 men and 100 long spears,
a culverin, heavy field-pieces, and two tents. They are refused.
The peasants reply that some citizens had promised help ; therefore
they now demand it.
April 23. — The peasants are told they shall have a reply in
writing.
April 28. — Corn given out, but only some take it. Knobloch
torn to pieces by the peasants, and they pelted one another with the
pieces. The peasants have been heard to say that they would soon
see what the Rothenburgers were going to do !
May 1. — In the night they burned the cloister of E., plundered
another, and burned the castle of C.
May 8. — The people called together by the great bell in the
parish church to hear a proposal of the Markgraf Casimir to come
148 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
with his lady and jewels to Rothenburg; and on the other hand to
consider whether to send to the peasantry or not.
May 10. — Three neighbouring cities have gone over to the pea-
sants. They want Rothenburg to join them, too. At 6 o'clock
people are called together again, and the majority decide to send
artillery and spears to the peasants.
May 12. — More monasteries are sacked. Twelve kildeikins of
wine plundered by the people and drunk.
May 15. — Florian Geyer (one of the peasants' leaders) in the
parish church proposes articles of alliance with the peasants for 101
years. Demanded that the committee and people should by oath
and vow league themselves with the peasants. Which was done,
although against the grain to some. Thus to-day Rothenburg has
gone over from the Empire to the peasants! A gallows was erected
in the market-place in token of this brotherhood, and as a terror to
evil-doers. About 5 o'clock tents, wagons, powder are got ready
and taken to the camp of the peasants, with intent to storm the
castle of Wurtzburg.
300 peasants who went up on May 9 to storm the castle of
Wurtzburg were all killed, part by the stones, part shot, part slain
—taken like birds ! (So the castle still held out.)
Casimir of Brandenburg is marching with forces to chastise the
peasants.
May 19. — He burns four towns. Four peasants at L. are
beheaded and seven have their fingers cut off. At N. eighteen
citizens beheaded.
May 27. — 4,000 peasants are slain in the valley of the Tauber by
the allied powers. (The combined forces of the nobles were now
joined by Truchsess, who had been victorious over the Swabian
peasants.)
May 29. — 8,000 more peasants slain by the allies. Three mes-
sengers are sent from Rothenburg to Markgraf Casimir, carrying a
red cross and fervently begging for mercy. No surrender would
be accepted but on ' mercy or no mercy.' All citizens, clergy and
laity, to pay seven florins for Blood and Fire Money, or to be
banished thirty miles out of the city. The city to provide some tons
of powder.
June 2.— Wurtzburg retaken by the Bund.
lh. v. Revolution. 149
june 24.— Mass said again, after thirteen weeks' interruption.
June 29.— Markgraf Casimir came to Rothenburg with 800
horse, 1,000 foot, 200 wagons well equipped with the best artillery,
which are placed in the market-place.
June 30. — All citizens called by herald and ordered to assemble
in the market-place, and form a circle under guard of soldiers with
spears. It was announced that the Rothenburgers had revolted
from the Empire and joined the peasants, and had forfeited life,
honour, and goods. The Markgraf and many nobles were present.
Twelve citizens were called out by name, and beheaded on the spot.
Their bodies were left all day in the market-place. Several had
fled who otherwise would have been beheaded.
July 1. — Eight more beheaded.
It was during the Franconian rebellion that the pea-
sants chose the robber knight Goetz von Berlichingen as
their leader. It did them no good. More than a robber
chief was needed to cope with soldiers used to war. The
failure of the Franconian rebel peasants was inevitable,
and the wild vigour with which they acted in the mo-
ments of their brief power did but add to the cruelty
with which they were crushed and punished when the
tide of victory turned against them.
While all this was going on in the valleys jnsurrectlon
of the Maine, the revolution had crossed the in Elsass and
Rhine into Elsass and Lothringen, and the down^May*
Palatinate about Spires and Worms, and in x525»
the month of May had been crushed in blood, as in
Swabia and Franconia. South and east, in and _n Bava
Bavaria, in the Tyrol, and in Carinthia ria, the Tyrol,
. and Carinthia.
also, castles and monasteries went up in
flames, and then, when the tide of victory turned, the
burning houses and farms of the peasants lit up the
night and their blood flowed freely.
Meanwhile Miinzer who had done so much to stir up
150 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ij.
the peasantry in the south to rebel, had gone north into
, Thuringia, and headed a revolution in the
Miinzer heads
an insurrection town of Mulhausen, and became a sort of
Savonarola of a madder kind, believing
himself inspired, talking of his visions, uttering prophe-
cies, denouncing vengeance on all who opposed what he
believed to be the gospel. He exercised over the citi-
zens something of the influence that Savonarola had
done in Florence. His intense earnestness carried them
away. They could not help believing in him and re-
garding him with awe. For a while the rich fed the
poor, and under his eye there was almost a community
of goods. But Miinzer, not content with visions and his
prophetic office, madly appealed to the sword. When
he heard of the revolution in Swabia, he seemed to
sniff the breeze like a war-horse. He issued a proclama-
tion to the peasantry round about:
Arise ! fight the battle of the Lord ! On ! on ! on ! Now is the
time ; the wicked tremble when they hear of you. Be pitiless !
Heed not the groans of the impious ! Rouse up the
prockuna- towns and villages ; above all, rouse up the miners
tion- of the mountains ! On ! on ! on ! while the fire is
burning; on while the hot sword is yet reeking with the slaughter !
Give the fire no time to go out, the sword no time to cool ! Kill
all the proud ones : while one of them lives you will not be free from
the fear of man ! While they reign over you it is no use to talk of
God ! . . . Amen.
Given at Muhlhausen, 1525. Thomas Miinzer, servant of God
against the wicked.
These were some of the words which were meant to
wake up echoes in the hearts of the neighbouring miners
of Mansfeld, among whom the kindred of Luther
dwelt !
This was what had come of the prophets of Zwickau
ch. VI. Revolution. 151
giving up their common sense and following visions and
inspirations !
But the end was coming. The princes, with their dis-
ciplined troops, came nearer and nearer. What could
Miinzer do with his 8,ooo peasants? He pointed to a
rainbow and expected a miracle, but no miracle came.
The battle, of course, was lost. 5,000 peasants lay dead
upon the field near the little town of Frankenhausen,
where it was fought.
Miinzer fled and concealed himself in a bed, but was
found and taken before the princes, thrust Death of
into a dungeon, and afterwards beheaded. Miinzer.
So ended the wild career of this misguided, fanatical,
self-deceived, but yet, as we must think, earnest and in
many ways heroic spirit. We may well believe that he
was maddened by the wrongs of the peasantry into what
Luther called a 'spirit of confusion.'
The prince and nobles now everywhere prevailed over
the insurgent peasants.
Luther, writing on June 21, 1525, says: —
' It is a certain fact, that in Franconia 11,000 peasants have been
slain. Markgraf Casimir is cruelly severe upon his peasants, who
have twice broken faith with him. In the Duchy of Wurtemberg,
6,000 have been killed ; in different places in Swabia, 10,000. It is
said that in Alsace the Duke of Lorraine has slain 20,000. Thus
everywhere the wretched peasants are cut down.'
The struggle extended into Styria and Carinthia,
where there had been risings before, and lingered on
longest in the Tyrol. It was not till Truchsess was aided
by the General George Frijndsberg, the old general who
had shaken hands with Luther in the Diet of Worms,
that victory was secured to the higher powers.
Before the Peasants' War was ended at least 100,000
152 The Protestant Revolution, pt. 11.
perished, or twenty times as many as were put to death
in Paris during the Reign of Terror in 1793.
So ended the peasants' revolution. For two hundred
and fifty years more the poor German peasantry must
bear the yoke of feudal serfdom. They must wait till,
in the beginning of the nineteenth century, German
statesmen, awakened by the French Revolution, saw
the necessity of preventing another Peasants' War by
granting a timely reform.
Luther, throughout the Peasants' War, sided with the
ruling powers. He was firm as a rock in opposing the
m . , use of the sword against the civil power.
The attitude ° r ,
of Luther The reform he sought was by means 01 the
Peasants** civil power ; and in order to clear himself
War* and his cause from all participation in the
wild doings of the peasantry, he publicly exhorted the
princes to crush their rebellion. The peasants thought
that in Luther (himself a peasant) they should have
found a friend, but they were bitterly disappointed. He
hounded on the princes in their work of blood.
That Luther should be bitter against Munzer and the
wild prophets of revolution was but natural. He had
seen the end from the beginning ; he had left his retreat
in the Wartburg four years before to quell the tumults
at Wittenberg. Driven out of Wittenberg the prophets
had become madder still. No doubt Europe owed
much to the right-mindedness of Luther in setting his
face against a resort to the sword in the cause of reli-
gious reform. Yet one cannot sympathize with Luther's
harsh treatment of the peasantry and their misguided
leaders. It cannot be denied that to some extent this
revolution had grown up from the dragon's teeth that he
himself had sown. There was a time when he himself
had used wild language and done wild deeds. Eras-
lh. v. Revolution. 153
mus had predicted that all Europe would be turned
upside down in a universal revolution ; and had it not
come to pass ? The monks blamed Erasmus and the
new learning ; Erasmus blamed the wildness of Luther ;
Luther blamed the wilder prophets. Who „„
1 x Who was
was to blame ? History will not lay blame really to
on Erasmus or Luther, or on the wilder ame '
prophets, or on the misguided peasantry, but on the
higher powers whose place it was to have averted revo- 1/
lution by timely reforms. It was their refusal of reform
which was the real cause of revolution. It was the con-
spiracy of the higher powers at the Diet of Worms to
sacrifice the common weal to their own ambitious ob-
jects on which history will lay the blame of the Pea-
sants' War.
In the meantime let us not forget that there was one
at least of the higher powers who had no share in the
blame — one of them who had shown himself able to
sacrifice his own ambition to the common weal, who
had worked silently and hard for reform — Death of the
the good Elector Frederic of Saxony. As K'ectorof
0 J Saxony,
the peasant rebellion under Miinzer was May 1525.
going on in Thuringia, on the threshold of Saxony, he
lay dying. He had no revengeful feelings. He did
not urge on the slaughter of peasantry like Luther. He
wrote to his brother, Duke John, who succeeded him as
Elector, and who was gone with the army, to act pru-
dently and leniently. If the peasants' turn had really
come to rule, God's will be done ! Only his servants
were with him. 'Dear children,' he said to them, 'if I
have offended any of you, forgive me, for the love of
God; we princes do many things to the poor people
that we ought not to do ! '
Soon after he received the sacrament, and died.
154 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
(d) The Saek of Rome (1527).
Now let us see what was the result to the higher
Alliance of powers themselves of the secret treaty of
Ehe Emperor Worms, May 8, 1521, by which the Pope
against France. ancj Emperor were to join their forces
against France, and to secure which the interests of the
German people were deliberately sacrificed.
Henry VIII. of England soon joined the alliance
against France. He had secret reasons to be mentioned
Henry vin. hereafter for keeping on good terms with
joins !t- Charles V. and the Pope, and so had his
minister Cardinal Wolsey. Henry was tempted also
with the prospect of winning back the English provinces
in France, while Wolsey was flattered by the promises
of Charles V. to do all he could to get him elected Pope
on the next vacancy.
The first skirmishes took place between Charles V.
and Francis I. in the north, but with no decisive results.
Meanwhile the allied army in Italy was strengthened and
that of France weakened by the Swiss soldiers under the
pay of France being withdrawn, and Swiss recruits ac-
cepting imperial pay. The armies were soon in motion,
and on Nov. 25, 1521, Leo X. received tidings that the
Pope Leo x. allied army had triumphantly entered the
dies, 1521. cjty Qf Milan, but while the rejoicings at
Rome in celebration of their triumph were still going on,
the Pope suddenly died, on December 1, not without
suspicion of poison.
To the surprise of everyone the Emperor's old tutor
... _„ was now elected Pope under the title of
Adrian \ I. r
Adrian VI. Charles V. had not used his
influence to promote the success of Wolsey. Adrian was
a Spaniard — a nominal governor in Spain while Ximenes
really governed — and was more likely to serve Spanish
ch, v Revolution. 155
interests than the wily English minister. Adrian was a
sternly virtuous, well-meaning pope. He would have
made peace if he could. He would have reconciled the
German nation by reforms if he could, but with the wish
he had not the power. Everything was against him ; he
was old ; his reign was short, and he died clement vil.
in 1523, to make way, not for Wolsey, for PoPe> x523
again Charles V. played his own game, but for another
of the Medici, Clement VII. He was not a Spaniard,
but the most powerful ally of Spain that Italy could pro-
duce among her cardinals.
In the meantime the Duke of Bourbon (one of the
Duchies which had become subject to the French crown)
rebelled from Francis I. and joined the im- DukedeBour-
perial league against France. Henry VIII. bon joins the
1 & o J league against
also was once more tempted by a vague France.
prospect of again annexing French provinces to the
English crown, to help in the invasion of France.
The result of this invasion was to rouse the national
feeling, and therefore the power of France. It was un-
successful, and ended in Francis I. assum- ^
Francis I.
ing the offensive and crossing the Alps, crosses the
Then came the battle of Pavia in 1524, in ps'
which the imperial armies under the Duke at ^,e battuTof
of Bourbon and the old German general Pavia-
^rundsberg gained the victory, and Francis I. was taken
prisoner.
Henry VIII. began now to dream not only of getting
back the lost English provinces, but even of being king
of France. But Charles V. had little confidence in him
and Wolsey. He was playing his own game, not that
of Henry VIII,
Pope Clement VII. meanwhile had expected Francis
I. to win at the battle of Pavia, and, to make himself
0 The Protestant Revolution. pt. ii.
safe, had come to secret terms of alliance with him.
Before the battle of Pavia he had gone so far as almost
to break with the Emperor. After the bat-
twUeenUrcharles tie, all Italy began to be afraid that Spanish
Pop"dthe influence would become omnipotent; so a
rupture between the Pope and Spain was
imminent. In the meantime the Emperor removed his
royal prisoner to Spain, so taking him out of the hands
of his allies. Then came the breach between Charles V.
and Henry VIII., the marriage of Charles — so long in-
tended but kept secret — to the Infanta of Portugal, in-
stead of to the English Princess Mary ; the secret peace
of Henry with France. In 1526, followed the release of
Francis on his oath to observe conditions from which the
Pope at once formally absolved him. This produced a
final breach between the Emperor and the Pope, and an
alliance between the Pope and Francis against the Em-
peror.
It was at this moment that the Diet of Spires was
sitting. The Emperor had ordered that stringent mea-
Result at sures should be taken against the Lutheran
the Diet of heresy, and that the Edict of Worms should
be carried out. This was impossible. The
new Elector of Saxony, and those who sided with him,
were too strongly backed for such a course to be taken.
Now the breach between the Pope and the Emperor came
to their aid. The Emperor no longer cared to back up
the interests of a Pope who had quarrelled with him, and
the result of the Diet was a decree signed by Ferdinand,
the brother of Charles V., in the Emperor's stead, con-
taining the memorable clause, that ' Each state should,
as regards the Edict of Worms, so live, rule, and bear
itself as it thought it could answer it to God and the
Emperor '
ch. v. Revolution. 157
This left the Catholic princes to do as they liked on
the one hand, and the princes who favoured Luther to do
as they liked on the other. From this decree of the Diet
of Spires came the division of Germany into Catholic
and Protestant states.
This came out of the quarrel between the Pope and
Emperor. The next thing was the gathering of a Ger-
man army under George Frundsberg, an ar- March of a
my composed almost entirely of Lutherans, German
' r J army on
under a Lutheran general, a host of discon- Rome,
tented, wild, reckless men, who had survived the horrors
of the Peasants' War, were inspired by hope of plunder,
and inflamed by the zeal of Frundsberg, who declared,
'When I make my way to Rome, I will hang the Pope !'
They crossed the Alps by a dangerous unguarded pass,
descended into the plains of Lombardy, and then joined
the Spanish army under the Duke of Bourbon. This was
in January 1527. A few weeks more, and the combined
army, 20,000 strong, was marching on Rome. Then came
delays, rumours of a truce, and the mutiny of the Span-
ish soldiers for their long-withheld pay. Lastly, the
German soldiers also mutinied, in vexation at which the
old veteran general Frundsberg fell powerless under a
shock of paralysis. The army advanced under Bourbon,
and then followed the commencement of the siege of
Rome ; the death of Bourbon, shot as he was mounting
a ladder ; and — the rest shall be told in the graphic words,
which the brother of the Emperor's secretary Valdez put
into the mouth of an eye-witness in his ' Dialogue on the
Sack of Rome.'
' The Emperor's army was so desirous to enter Rome,
some to rob and spoil, others for the extreme The sack
hatred they bore to the Court of Rome, and of Rome
some both for the one and the other cause, that the Span*
i $8 The Protestant Revolution-. PT. ii.
iards and the Italians on the one side by scale, and the
Germans on the other side by pickaxes breaking down
the wall, entered by the Borgo, on which side stands the
Church of St. Peter and the Holy Palace. Though those
within had artillery and those without none, yet they en-
tered without the slaughter of a hundred of themselves.
Of those within were slain, some say 6,ooo, but in truth
there died not upon the entry above 4,000, for they im-
mediately retired into the city. The Pope in his own
palace was so careless that it was a wonder he was not
taken, but seeing how matters stood, he retired himself
into the castle of St. Angelo, with thirteen cardinals and
other bishops and principal persons who stayed with him.
And presently the enemies entered, and spoiled and
sacked all that was in the palace, and the like did they to
the cardinals' houses and all other houses within the
Borgo, not sparing any, no not the Church of the Prince
of the Apostles ! This day they had enough to do without
entering P^omc, whither our people, hoisting up the draw-
bridge, had retired and fortified themselves. The poor
Roman people, seeing their manifest destruction, would
have sent ambassadors to the army of the Emperor to
have agreed with him, and to have avoided the sack ;
but the Pope would by no means consent to it.
'The captains of the Emperor presently determined to
assault the city, and the very same night, fighting with
their enemies, they entered, and the sack continued more
than eight days, in which time they had no regard of
nation, quality, or kind of men. The captains did what
they could to stop it, but the soldiers, being so fleshed in
their robberies as they were, you should behold troops
of soldiers passing the streets with cries; one carried
prisoners, another plate, another household stuff. The
sighs, groans, and outcries of women and children in all
CH. v. Revolution. 159
places were so piteous that my bones yet shake to make
report of them. They carried no respect to bishops or
cardinals, churches or monasteries ; all was fish that
came into their net; there was never seen more cruelty,
less humanity, nor fear of God.
'They had no respect even to Spaniards and Ger-
mans, and other nations that were vassals and servants
to the Emperor. They left neither house, nor church, nor
man that was in Rome unsacked or ransomed, not even
the secretary Perez himself, who was resident at Rome
on behalf of the Emperor. Those cardinals who could
not escape with the Pope into the castle of St. Angelo
were taken and ransomed, and their persons full i 1 1 —
favouredly handled, being drawn through the streets of
Rome bare-legged. To make mocking of them, a Ger-
man, clothing himself like a cardinal, went riding about
Rome in his " pontificalibus," and a bottle of wine on the
pommel of his saddle, and then a Spaniard in the same
manner, with a courtezan behind him. The Germans led
a bishop of their own nation (who stood upon election to
have" been a cardinal) to the market-place to be sold, with
a bough in his forehead, as they do when they sell beasts.
' It is said that the sack of Rome amounted unto, by
ransoms and compositions, above 15 millions of ducats.
Churches were turned into stables. The Church of St.
Peter, both on the one side and the other, was all full of
horses ! Soldiers carried along the streets nuns from
monasteries and virgins from their fathers' houses, and
from the time that the Emperor's army entered Rome
till the time that I departed — the 12th June — there was
not a mass said in Rome, nor all that time heard we a
bell ring nor a clock. Not a priest or friar dared walk
in the streets except in garments of a soldier, else
the Germans would cry out, "A pope ! a pope ! kill ! kill !' "
160 The Protestant Revolution. PT. hi.
This was what had come to the Pope from the con-
spiracy of his predecessor with the Emperor at Worms, — ■
an imperial edict at the Diet of Spires, in 1526, leaving
the states of Germany virtually free to adhere to or sever
themselves from the ecclesiastical empire of Rome as
they severally pleased ; — Rome sacked by a German
army in the Emperor's name, and more pitilessly pillaged
than it had been 1000 year-, before by the Vandals; —
the Pope a prisoner of the Emperor in the castle of St.
Angelo, and henceforth destined to act as the tool of his
imperial master, and to yield an enforced submission to
the supremacy of Spain !
We may take this result as marking an
Result of the ' , , ,
Papal policy, epoch. Rome had for ever ceased to be the
capital of Christendom. The old Roman
form of civilization radiating from Rome had finally given
place to a new form of civilization, which would go on its
way independently of Rome, and which Rome was no
longer able either to inspire or to control.
PART III.
RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT
REVOLUTION.
CHAPTER I.
revolts from rome.
In Switzerland and Germany.
(a) Meaning of Revolt from Rome.
We have now to trace how the Protestant Revolution re-
sulted in several national revolts from the ecclesiastical
empire of Rome.
CH. I.
Revolts from Rome.
161
EXTENT ofthe REVOLT from ROME
1 62 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. III.
But first, what did a national revolt from Rome mean ?
It was the claiming by the civil power in each nation of
those rights which the Pope had hitherto
Meaning of re- ...... . , r a i
volt from claimed within it as head of the great eccle-
siastical empire. The clergy and monks had
hitherto been regarded more or less as foreigners — i. e. as
subjects of the Pope's ecclesiastical empire. Where
there was revolt from Rome the allegiance of these per-
sons to the Pope was annulled, and the civil power
claimed as full a sovereignty over them as it had over its
lay subjects. Matters relating to marriages and wills still
for the most part remained under ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion as before, but then, as the ecclesiastical courts them-
selves became national courts and ceased to be Roman
or Papal, all these matters came under the control of the
civil power. Even in matters of religious doctrine and
practice and public worship, the civil power often claimed
the final authority hitherto exercised by the Pope.
Such being the meaning of revolt from Rome, it will
be clear at once that it was a political quite as much as
,. . , and sometimes more than a religious matter
A political . .... .
change. — an assertion by the civil power in each
nation of that free independent national life
which we noticed as characteristic of the new order of
things.
A study of the map showing ' the extent of the revolt
from Rome ' will illustrate this by another fact — viz. that
^L m .it was those nations which in the main are of
The 1 eutonic . .
nations revolt- Teutonic or German origin — Germany, bwit-
The Romanic zerland, Denmark, Sweden, England, Scot-
matSre" land> and the Netherlands— which finally
under Rome. made good their revolt from Rome. As the
Germans under their great leader ' Hermann' had, 1500
years before, been the first to make good their indepen-
ch. I. Revolts from Rome — Switzerland. 163
dence from the old Roman Empire, so it was in the na-
tions which were of Germanic speech and origin that
revolt was made from papal Rome. On the other hand
those nations — Spain, France, and Italy — which had
long formed a part of the old Roman Empire, and were
Romanic in their languages and instincts, remained in
allegiance to the Pope.
There were no doubt many people in Spain, France,
and Italy who sympathized with the doctrines of the
Reformers, but there was no revolt, because these na-
tions, or the civil powers representing them, chose to re-
main politically connected with Rome.
It is well to observe also how the turn the revolt took
in the revolting nations was in a great degree the result
of their political condition.
Thus in England, Denmark, Sweden, in which the
central power was strong enough to act for the nation
and to carry the nation with it, there was a
... . In some na-
decisive national revolt from Rome; while tions there was
in Switzerland and Germany, where practi- vok^'Trfsome
cally there was no central power capable of ^"dvi^wanT
acting for the nation as a whole, there were
divisions and civil wars within the nation, some of its
petty states at length revolting from Rome, and others
remaining ui'ider the ecclesiastical empire.
We will fust take the case of these divided nations — ■
Switzerland and Germany, and then pass on to the others.
[b) The Revolt in Switzerland.
No nation was so absolutely without a central authori-
ty as the Swiss. Each canton was as independent of
the others for most purposes as the petty
r j 1 r ^ „„ ,T , . Switzerland
feudal states of Germany. When Machia- divided into
velli complained of the divisions of Italy
164 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt, hi.
Ifaggiore^ 4^
Cantons enclosed oy~blac~k lines
Districts not yet Cantons enclosed 7>y dotted lines
The five Forest, Cantons enrfo*-d hu a strong n
Russell k Strut
,,N.-r.
preventing its becoming a nation, he warned the Italians
of the danger of a country being ' cantonized ' like Swit-
zerland. But there was this difference between a Swiss
canton and a petty feudal state. In the Swiss canton
there was no feudal lord ; the people governed them-
selves. It was not a feudal lordship, but a little republic
of communes or villages of the primitive Teutonic type,
in which the civil power was vested in the community.
If therefore in a Swiss canton the civil power took to
„. ., itself the ecclesiastical power hitherto held
Civil power *■
vested in the by the Pope, that power became vested in
the people, not, as in other countries, in the
prince or king.
Bearing this in mind, the history of the revolt from
Rome in Switzerland will be easily comprehended.
TT1 . , „ . The Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zivinrle. was
Ulnch Zwin- . «s »
gle, the Swiss born in 1 484, and was the son of the chief
man of his village. Well educated at Basle
ch. i. Revolts from Rome — Switzerland. 165
and Berne, and after having taken this degree at the
university at Vienna, he became a curate in Canton
Glarus. The new learning had spread into Switzerland,
and Zwingle was one of its disciples. He studied Plato
and the new Testament in Greek, like Colet and Eras-
mus. Being sent into Italy twice as army preacher, he
saw the Swiss troops conquered at Marignano, and re-
turned home full of patriotic hatred of the system of
hiring out troops to fight other nations' battles. Then he
settled in Zurich and became a reformer ; Setties at Zu_
preaching against indulgences, celibacy in nch-
the clergy, and whatever else he thought could not be
justified by the New Testament.
His own canton, Zurich, under his influ- Zurich as-
ence, threw off the episcopal yoke of the SSSmJS?
Bishop of Constance and assumed the eccle- Powers-
siastical authority to itself. The Zurich government au-
thorized the use of their mother tongue instead of Latin
in public worship, burned the relics from the shrines
and altered the mode of admistering the sa- „
_ „ . . , . - _ Berne did the
craments. So Zurich revolted from Rome same soon
in 1524. Berne followed soon after; while
the Forest Cantons — Lucerne, Zug, Schwitz, Uri, and Un-
terwalden — followed by Fribourg and the Valais, which
was not yet a Swiss canton, held to the old order of
things.
Some cantons going one way and some another, the
result was division and civil war, the Catholic cantons
calling in the aid of their old feudal enemies, _. .,
. Civil war.
the House of Hapsburg. The civil war
lasted, off and on, for two or three years till, in 1531,
after Zwingle himself had fallen in battle, it was ended
was
by the peace of Cappel, at which it
decided that each canton should do as it Cappel, 1531.
Peace of
1 66 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
liked, while in the districts which were dependent on the
Swiss Confederation, and not to any particular canton,
the majority in each congregation should manage its
own ecclesiastical affairs. The map will show which
cantons revolted from Rome, and how the districts were
divided in their action.
Zwingle was a true patriot. He wished to see the
Swiss a united nation ; and with that object he proposed
Character of political as well as religious reforms which
Zwmgie. are now |jeing carried out. He was rather
a disciple of Erasmus than of Luther. He did not adopt
the strong Augustinian views of Luther. He also took
freer views respecting the sacraments. Luther, a slave
in this respect to the mere letter of Scripture, held by the
_ , words 'This is my body' so strongly as to
Luther quar- . J ° J
relswith uphold the doctrine of 'the real presence'
almost as fully as the Catholic party.
Zwingle took wider views, treating the sacrament as a
symbol The violent dogmatic intolerant spirit of
Luther was never more painfully shown than in the dis-
pute with Zwingle on this subject. The bitter hatred he
showed to Zwingle and Erasmus was all of a piece with
hib violent feelings against the poor peasants of
Germany. Whilst doing justice to the noble and heroic
character of the great German reformer, these things re-
mind us that there lingered in his mind much of the
dogmatism and intolerance of the scholastic theologian.
(c) Tlic Revolt in Germany (i 526-1 555).
We have seen how the German people suffered at the
commencement of the era because they had not yet be-
come a united nation ; and also how deep and widely
spread were their yearnings after national life and unity
—peasants crying out to the higher powers for protec-
CH. I. Revolt from Rome — Germany. 167
tion from feudal oppression — Luther and Hutten ap-
pealing to them to free the German nation from the
tyranny of the great ecclesiastical empire of Rome. Had
Charles V. cared more for Germany than his own selfish
ambitions, and put himself at the head of the strong
national feeling, as Frederick of Saxony wanted him to
do at Worms, there was at least a good chance of
uniting Germany into a powerful and prosperous nation.
But he threw away the chance. We have seen how the
course taken by Charles V. and the higher powers in the
Diet of Worms produced a revolution which cost a
hundred thousand lives. We have now to _ . .
1 he freedom
see how it divided Germany into two hostile oftheGer-
camps, hurried her into the horrors of the fa^ost^"1
Thirty Years' War, postponed for eight or gSM^JT*
ten generations the freedom of her peasan- „
, , - . , ,. The Diet of
try, and left to our own times the realization Spires, 1526,
of the yearnings of the German people after s^e'lo take
national unity. JE?*-,
The decision of the Diet of Spires in 1526 Luther,
had already settled that each state of the Empire should
do as it thought best in the matter of the edict against
Luther.
As might be expected, those princes who sided with
Luther, and followed the lead of Saxony, at once took
reform into their own hands. Monasteries TT
Hence arose
were reformed or suppressed, and their rev- Protestant
enues turned to good account, either for national"
educational purposes, for supporting the fromRome^
preaching of the gospel, or for the poor, while others
1 ° 01 remained
Monks and nuns were allowed to marry, Catholic.
Luther himself setting the example of mar-
rying a nun. Divine service was in part carried on in
German, though Latin was not entirely excluded. The
1 68 Results of the Protesttmt Revolution, pt. in.
youth were taught to read in common schools and in
the language of the Fatherland. Luther's German Bible
and German hymns came into popular use. In a word,
in what were called the ' Evangelical States' a sever-
ance was made from the Church of Rome ; and national
churches sprang up, resting on the civil power of each
state for their authority and adopting Lutheran doctrines.
This was the result of the decree of the first Diet of
Spires and the Emperor's quarrel with the Pope.
Meanwhile the Emperor, having settled his quarrel
with the Pope, returned to his loyalty to
The second ^ , , . , r \ • ■,
Diet of Rome, and, taking advantage of this, the
reversed ^tfie Catholic party succeeded, in the second
decision not- j)iet of Spires, in 1 529, in passing a decree
the protest of re-enacting the Edict of Worms, and for-
the Protestant , . , .. °. r ...
princes. bidding all future reform till a regular coun-
cil was summoned. The Lutheran princes
protested against the decree, and so earned the name of
' Protestants.'
Civil war would very likely have at once resulted from
this had not the Turks very opportunely made an attempt
to extend their empire westward by besieging Vienna.
The old dread which filled the minds of Christians at the
beginning of the era came upon them again. Melanch-
thon, who, with all his wisdom, still believed in astrology,
watched the movements of the stars, and
averted by the augured disastrous results from the approach
TnUvfennaaCk of a comet. Luther showed how thorough a
German he was by counselling unity in the
moment of common danger. For a time Germany was
united again, but only till the Turks had retreated from
Vienna.
Charles V. had now reached the summit of his power.
He had conquered France, he had conquered the Pope,
CH. i. Revolt from Rome — Germany. 169
he had been crowned king- of Italy at Bo-
1 tt • -11-, The Turks
logna. He was now again reconciled with driven back.
the Pope, and lastly, he had driven back the Snfagain
Turks. He had only to conquer the he- j^r0enti^serman
retics of Germany to complete the list of
his triumphs. So he came in person to the Diet of
Augsburg in 1530 to ensure by his presence the enforce-
ment of the Edict of Worms. Every effort was made to
induce the Protestant princes to submit;
but, headed by John of Saxony and Philip burg. ThegS
of Hesse, they maintained their ground, confession.'
Luther and Melanchthon were at Coburg,
near at hand, and drew up a statement of Lutheran doc-
trines which was known henceforth as the 'Augsburg
Confession.'
The Emperor at length gave them a few months to
consider whether they would submit; if not, the decree
of the Diet was, that the Lutheran heresy
should be crushed by the imperial power, princes' form
The Protestant princes at once formed the SchmalkaJd
'league of Schmalkalden ' for mutual de- defend"31
fence. And this, in spite of Luther's protest
against opposition to the civil power, would have at once
led to civil war, had not another Turkish invasion in
J532 again diverted the attention of Charles V. and of
Germany from religious disputes.
During the life of Luther, the inevitable civil war was
postponed. Melanchthon used the delay for an attempt,
by argument and persuasion, to bring about a reconcili-
ation between Catholic and Protestant theologians. At
the council of Ratisbon, as we shall see „. ,
u j i- ii-i Civil war
by-and-by, a theological peace was almost postponed
concluded ; but the schism was too wide and Lmhlr's
deep to be healed so easily. Meanwhile, state llfe'
r7o Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
after state went over to the Protestant side, and civil war
became more and more imminent. The death of Luther
in 1546 was the signal for its commencement. The Em-
peror and Catholic princes, by means of Spanish soldiers,
, . , . now tried to reduce to obedience the princes
but it begins
soon after of the Schmalkald league. They conquered
his death. the Elcctor john Frederic of Saxony and
Duke Philip of Hesse, the leaders of the Lutheran party,
and proceeded to enforce by the sword a return to Cath-
olic faith and practice all over Germany.
Charles V. now appeared in his true light as the Span-
ish conqueror of Germany. John Frederick of Saxony
and Philip of Hesse, the most beloved and
Spanish con-
quest of Ger- truly German of German princes, were sen-
tenced to death, kept in prison, and brutally
treated. Germany, which Charles V. had sacrificed at
the Diet of Worms to secure his Spanish policy, was now
kept down by Spanish soldiers, and practically made
into a Spanish province.
This was not the national unity which the German peo-
ple yearned after; it was subjugation to a foreign yoke.
A few years of Spanish rule produced its natural
effect — revolt of the German princes, alliance even with
France ! and then came, with strange suddenness, the
defeat and flight of Charles V. He made an attempt to
regain part of the ground which the French had taken,
and then abdicated, leaving the empire to his brother
Ferdinand, Spain and the Netherlands to his son Philip
, , II. Then followed his cloister life, his
Revolt of . . .
the Protes- strange remorse in consideration that he had
Defeat !'• S not averted all these evils by the timely de-
ChariesV.; struction of the heretic Luther at the Diet
his abdica-
tion and 0f Worms ; and then at last the end of his
strange, brilliant, but misguided life in 1558.
ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 171
The struggle of Charles V. with Germany ended in the
Peace of Augsburg (1555), with its legal recognition of
the Protestant states and its wretched rule The peace
of mock toleration — cuius regio, ejus religio of Augsburg
• i i (1555 •, and
— toleration to princes, with power to compel its rule of
their subjects to be of the same religion as j££k tolera"
themselves ! It was a peace so rotten in its
foundation that out of it came by inevitable necessity
that most terrible chapter of German history, and perhaps
of any history — the Thirty Years' War — which cost Ger-
many, some say, half her population, robbed her citizens
of the last vestige of their political freedom, confirmed
the serfdom of her peasantry for two centuries more, and
left upon some of her provinces scars which may be
traced to-day.
Such terrible paths had the German people to tread
towards national freedom and unity. Ten generations
mans had to bear the curse brought
upon them, not by the Reformation, but by brought
, , . 1 T 1 Up. Ml ( l(_T-
those who opposed it — not by Luther, nor many by
even by Mun/.er and his wild associates, but CharlesV-
by the Emperor Charles V. and others of the higher
powers who sided with him when he sold the interests of
Germany and signed the treaty with the Pope on that
fatal 8th of May, 1 521, at the Diet of Worms.
CHAPTER II.
REVOLT OF ENGLAND FROM ROME.
(a) lis Political ( 'haracter.
There were two points in which the revolt of England
from Rome differed from the revolt in Switzerland and
Germany.
172 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill.
(i) England was a compact nation with a strong
central government ; and so, instead of splitting into
In England parties and ending in civil wax, revolted
fromllome altogether, the king and parliament acting
was national, together, and transferring to the crown the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction hitherto exercised by the Pope
in England.
(2) In the Protestant states of Germany and cantons
of Switzerland, a religious movement had preceded and
and came at caused a political change; but in England
political" thc political change (.one first and the
t-',llscs change in doctrine and mode of worship long
afterwards. The severance of England from Rome was
not the result of a religious movement, but of political
causes, which we must now trace.
[b) Reasons for Henry Villi s Loyalty to Rome.
Up to a certain point in his reign Henry VIII. held by
Henry viii. tnc P°Pe and opposed Luther. At the time of
defends the tjlc i3ict ofWorms he joined the league of the
divine autho- J °
rity of the Pope and Fanperor, not only against France,
writes a but also against Luther. \\ nilst the Diet of
Lmher^n"51 Worms was sitting, he wrote his celebrated
xs21- book against Luther and in defence of the
divine authority of the Pope — for doing which the Pope
rewarded him with the title of" Defender of the Faith."
His zeal in this matter was so eager as to surprise Sir
Thomas More, who was now in Henry VIII.'s service.
When the king showed him the book, and he saw the
passages in defence of the divine authority of the Pope,
He tells Sir More (who himself doubted it, and had
Thomas hinted his doubts in his Utopia by making
secret reason the Utopians talk of electing a Pope of their
own) questioned with the king whether it
CH. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 173
was wise to write so strongly on that point. " Where-
unto (More says) his Highness answered me that he
would in no wise anything minish of that matter ; of
which thing his Highness showed me a secret cause
whereof I never had anything heard before."
Thereupon More studied the matter afresh, altered his
opinion, came to the conclusion that the Papacy was of
divine authority, and held that view so strongly ever
after, that at last he died rather than deny it. The
reasons which made Henry VIII. uphold the divine au-
thority of the Pope, are the clue to the history of the
severance of England from Rome afterwards.
What were they?
We saw how the ruling idea of Henry VII. was to
establish himself and his heirs firmly on the throne.
Kings had hitherto had such precarious thrones that they
lived in constant fear of rebellions and pretenders. We
saw how Henry VII. relied greatly on his foreign policy
and alliances to make his throne secure, and that the
chief way of making these alliances firm, in
an age of bad faith and Machiavellian maJriage with
policy, was by royal marriages. Henry VII. ££|J£e °f
knew Ferdinand of Spain would tell lies or
break his oath without remorse, but he also knew that
if he could marry his son and probable successor to
Ferdinand's daughter, Ferdinand would stick by him in
close alliance in order to secure that his daughter might
some day be queen of England. So Henry VII. had
married his eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, to Cathe-
rine of Arragon, and when Arthur died, had strained
a point to get Catherine betrothed to his next son,
Henry VIII.
Now there was a difficulty about this marriage. If the
marriage with Arthur was merely a formal marriage, then
174 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
it was only an ecclesiastical matter, and the Pope's con-
sent to Catherine's marriage with Henry might make all
right. But if it was a real marriage, then
Secret doubts .. , . . , T T , , ,
about its the second marriage with Henry would be
validity. clearly contrary to the divine law, as con-
tained in the Book of Leviticus, where marriage with a
brother's wife was forbidden: and so, in that case, the
question would be whether the Pope could set aside the
divine law, and make lawful what it forbad. To do this
must certainly be a great stretch of the papal power, and
it only could be justified on the very high ground of the
divine authority of the Pope.
The betrothal of Henry to Catherine was from the
beginning a miserable affair. Its object was political.
It was his father Henry VII. 's doing while
Its uns.itisiac- * °
tory beginning, he was a boy ; and so doubtful, to say the
li ,i it, was its validity to those who knew all
about it, that to Henry VII. 's superstitious mind the death
of his queen seemed a divine judgment upon it. He
even then, as we have seen, proposed to marry Catherine
himself, but Ferdinand of Spain would not hear of it. A
bull was obtained from Pope Julius II., treating the ques-
tion of the reality of the former marriage as doubtful, but,
notwithstanding the doubts, sanctioning Catherine's mar-
riage with Henry. The betrothal was completed, but
the wary monarch made his son sign a secret protest
against it as soon as he was of age, so that he might at
any time set it aside if the turn of political events made
it expedient to do so. We must remember, however,
that some of these matters were court secrets, and would
never have been publicly known had not future events
brought them to light.
Upon the accession of Henry VIII. it was needful for
him to make up his mind about his marriage. The
ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 175
doubts and difficulties remained the same as ever to those
who knew all about it, and it was not possible to dispel
them. But the alliance with Spain was still considered
important. And so the marriage with Catherine was
concluded. The public were told that the former mar-
riage had never been consummated, and that Henry
VIII. was acting under the sanction of a Papal bull.
This silenced talk out of doors, and the king smothered
any secret doubts of his own, relying on the divine au-
thority of the Pope. So the matter was concluded, and
now for years had not been questioned again. When,
therefore, Luther's attack upon the divine authority of
the Pope was attracting attention every-
where, we see that Henry VIII. had serious rested on'the
reasons of his own for 'defending it. He S^rfS?0"
knew in fact that the validity of his mar- Pope-
riage, and the legitimacy of his children's rights to suc-
ceed to the throne, depended upon it.
He had naturally been very anxious for an heir, so
that his throne might be secure. Unless he had an heir,
people must be thinking who will be king
next, and plotting to succeed to the throne. "iSy^!"aS
Henry and Catherine had had several chil- lt- and fhe
* succession.
dren, but all had died except one — the
Princess Mary — who, at the time of the Diet And amriety ti
of Worms, was a child of four years old. SKfffci
On her alone the succession depended, and '.'l^Vw
r Charles V.
Henry was anxious to secure it, as we have
seen, by a close alliance with the Pope and Spain, ce-
mented by the marriage of the Princess Mary to Charles
V. Henry VIII. knew that the succession to the throne
might at any time be made very precarious indeed if he
should ever quarrel with the Papal and Spanish Courts.
An event which happened about this time showed how
176 Results of the Protestant Revolution. FT. III.
keenly alive Henry VIII. was to these anxieties about
the successsion of the Princess Mary. He
Execution of , ,
the Duke of startled the world all at once by the execu-
ShSfiT tion of the Duke of Buckingham for trea-
his eye upon son for having his eye on the succession
the succes- ' .
sion to the to the throne. The Duke, it was said,
amongst other things, had been heard to
speak of the death of the royal children as judgments on
Henry and Catherine for their marriage. This was
enough to rouse Henry's suspicions, and so, after a
formal trial, he was found guilty of treason and be-
headed as a warning to others.
[e) Sir Thomas More defends Henry I III. against
Luther.
Probably the secret which Henry VIII. confided to
Sir Thomas More had something to do with the doubts
about the validitv of the marriage, and
Effect of ' ,
Knowledge of opened his eyes to the fact how the succes-
Vin?s se- sion to the throne and the safety of the
cretonSir kingdom was involved in the divine au-
1 homas °
More's thority of the Pope. It set him, as we have
said, studying the fathers until he came to
the conclusion that an authority which had long been
recognized, and on which so much depended, must have
divine sanction. Having come to this conclusion, he
was not likely to be made more favourable to Luther than
he otherwise would have been. We have seen that the
Oxford Reformers had from the first taken high ground
on the necessity of unity in the Christian Church. They
had also always been opposed to the Augustinian views
which Luther had adopted. They had agreed with
Luther in little but in the demand for a religious and
ecclesiastical reform.
ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 177
Erasmus had refused to identify himself with Luther,
and while defending him up to a certain point against
the Papal party had urged upon him moderation. This
advice Luther had not followed, and now Erasmus held
aloof from the Protestant struggle, urging moderation on
both sides, preaching unity, and going on quietly with
his own works, amongst which were fresh editions of his
New Testament.
It is not surprising, then, that when Luther wrote his
violent reply to Henry VIII. 's book, More should be
ready to defend it. He did so, and as time went on his
zeal against Luther grew by degrees almost into hatred.
As news of the wild doings of the prophets of Zwickau
and the horrors of the Peasants' War were reported in
England, More laid the blame on Luther. He regarded
him as a dangerous fanatic, scattering everywhere the
seeds of rebellion against the powers that be, whether
civil or religious.
He also urged his friend Erasmus to write against
Luther. In 1524, on the eve of the Peasants' War,
Erasmus did write a book against Luther's
strong Augustinian views, in which he urged ti^Ss'of
that they were sure to lead to all sorts of i5?!5K£
abuses in wilder hands. In the year of the Luther-
Peasants' War Sir Thomas More wrote an earnest letter
to one of Luther's supporters in Wittenberg, charging
the Lutheran movement with having lit the flame of se-
dition and set Germany on fire.
It is sad to see good and noble men like More hurried
into reaction, and unable to see the good and noble
points in a man like Luther, as well as his violence and
errors. But it was not unnatural. He dreaded lest the
heresies which had led in Germany to the Peasants'
War, might spread into England, and lest heresy and
N
178 Results of the Protestant Revolution. PT. 111.
treason should again be joined as in the days of the
Lollards. His judgment was no doubt to some extent
carried away by his fears. But we must recognize the
sincerity and mental reactions such as these in the lives
of good men. Each class of Reformers we have seen
to be suspicious of those who went further and faster
than they did themselves. Honest men of the old school
blamed Erasmus for all that happened. Erasmus, they
said, had laid the egg, and Luther had hatched it. Eras-
mus, in his turn, blamed Luther's violent conduct and
language. Luther again denounced Miinzer and the wild
prophets of revolution, as well as the poor deluded pea-
sants. If this was natural, so was the reaction in the
mind of Sir Thomas More. We need not, however, re-
gret it any the less on that account.
(d) Reasons for Henry Villus change of Policy,
Having thus seen that Henry VIII. from policy, and
More from conviction, were at this time strongly in fa-
vour of the Pope and his divine authority, the next thing
is to mark how long Henry VIII. continued of this
mind. The answer is, just so long as his alliance with
Spain continued.
During the wars of the Emperor, the Pope, and Henry
VIII. with France, Wolsey (now cardinal and legate,
and Archbishop of York, and soon after lord chancellor
also) was the war minister. It was he who
Wolsey, the '
great war knew all the mind of Henry VIII. and car-
Henryvni. rie& on his secret negotiations with Charles
V. and the Pope. It was he who managed
the treachery with Francis I., and made what prepara-
tion was needful for royal meetings, embassies, and
wars. It was Wolsey, too, who had to manage parlia-
ments, and urge them to grant subsidies to pay for the
ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 179
wars, and when he could get no more money from
Parliament it was Wolsey who managed to get it by le-
gal means, such as forced contributions from private
persons called ' benevolences.'
More was a novice on the privy council, __
1 J . . More opposed
and holding Utopian views, often in a mi- to the wars
,Tr . , ~ , with France.
nonty against Wolsey s measures. Once he
was alone in disapproval of the great minister's plans.
Wolsey hinted that he must be a fool. ' God be thanked,'
replied More, ' that the king has but one fool in his
council ! '
It mattered little to the king or Wolsey what he
thought, but More took care to let the king know that
England's joining in the wars with France was against
his judgment.
Wolsey's and Henry's confidence in Charles V. was
shattered by degrees. First came the treachery of
Charles V. in not helping to secure the elec- _ ,
1 ° Charles V. s
tion of Wolsey as Pope on the death of treachery,
Leo X. and afterwards of Adrian VI. Then
came the continuance of the war against France, under
the Duke of Bourbon, who flattered Henry with hopes
of regaining in case of victory the lost English provinces
in Fiance. Next came Pope Clement VI I. 's
fast and loose game with the allied sove- pjpe's.e
reigns; and lastly, the battle of Pavia. Of
these events we have spoken in a previous chapter.
On hearing the news of the capture of Francis I. at
the battle of Pavia, Henry VIII. proposed that he himself
should be king of France and Charles V. marry the
Princess Mary, so that in her right Charles V. might
some day become lord of all Christendom. Up to this
moment he had clearly not changed his mind. He still
wished to continue the Spanish alliance, and was true to
ib'o Results of the Protestant Revolution. FT. in.
Catherine and the Princess Mary. But just as his hopes
were at their highest point they vanished for ever.
Charles V. let Francis I. resume his throne on conditions
which the Pope declared to be null and void. Charles
V., instead of marrying the Princess Mary, married the
Infanta of Portugal, and Henry found him-
Henry
V ills self betrayed. Charles V. and the Pope, on
puiky all at whose .dliance so much depended, had now
both escaped from his control. When, by
the conquest of Rome, the Pope himself soon after be-
came Charles Y.'s prisoner and tool, Henry VIII. 's for-
eign politics were indeed all at sea,
(e) The Crisis — J Liny VIII. determines upon the
Divorce from Catherine of Arragon.
Now look at Henry YIII.'s position. Mary was still
his only child. There had never yet been a queen on
,, , . the throne of England. He could no longer
Results of ' &
breach with rely on Charles Y. and the Pope. Thev at
Spain. . . r ,. . , V , .
any time, and for political purposes, and in
spite of Henry, could dispute the legitimacy of his only
daughter. Once more the succession to the throne was
uncertain, and in its nature the uncertainty could not be
cured. What was he to do ?
He resolved to take the bull by the horns, to divorce
himself from Catherine of Arragon, to disinherit Mary, to
Political rea- marry a young maid of honour, named
tons for the di- . 71 , . . .. . .
vorce from Anne Boleyn, and to hope for other heirs to
Catherine. tjlc crown it was a ^old policy, for mar-
riage was a matter which belonged to the ecclesiastical
empire, and so the divorce required the Pope's consent.
Wolsey set his wits to work to secure the Pope's sanc-
tion to the divorce. He got his own ecclesiastical power
as legate increased by the Pope, and Cardinal Campeg-
ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome* 181
gio over from Rome to join him in deciding on the
validity of the marriage. He tried every means to se-
cure the divorce required by Henry. He _. ,
* J , J Wolsey tries
had no notion of destroying in Henry's to get the Pope
mind the papal authority which as legate vorcejjut
he wielded in part, and as pope still hoped fails-
some day to wield entirely. Had he succeeded in obtain-
ing the papal sanction, there would have been no breach
with Rome. But he failed. The Pope, at the bidding
of his Spanish conqueror, made endless de- Henry VIII.
. , ~ ■ , • 1 . i takes the in.it-
lays; and Campeggio returned without nav- terintohLs
ing settled anything. At last, in spite of all ownhsuads.
that Wolsey could do, Henry VIII. determined to mar-
ry Anne Boleyn, and took the matter into his own hands.
This involved a deliberate breach with Rome and the
fall of Wolsey. Henry VIII. made up his mind to face both.
(/) Fall of Wolsey (1329-1330).
Cardinal Wolsey had been the very type of an over-
grown ecclesiastical potentate. Second to none but the
king, he had assumed to himself a viceregal .. ..... ,
°' ° Fall of Wolsey .
magnificence and state. And now that ec-
clesiastical grievances had come to the top, and, above
all, the king himself was quarelling with the Pope, Wol-
sey became a sort of scapegoat for both ecclesiastical
and papal sins. He was condemned formally for having
used his legatine and ecclesiastical authority contrary to
the royal prerogative. But the king had so far connived
at and sanctioned the very things for which he was now
condemned, and used them for his own purposes, that
he could hardly deal very harshly with his old minister.
He left him his archbishopric of York, to which he re-
turned in 1530. There he resumed some of his old state,
but by his intrigues to obtain popularity amongst the
182 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
Northern nobles again excited the fears of the court.
Messengers were sent down to arrest him of high treason,
and he was on his journey to London to answer the
charge, when, seized by a fever, he died at Leicester
Abbey, having given utterance to the famous words, 'Had
I served my God as I have served my king, he would
not have given me over in my gray hairs!' Henry
VIII. was not conspicuous for gratitude to his ministers.
(g) The Parliament of i 529-1 536. Revolt of England
from Rome.
Wolsey was dismissed in 1529. Hitherto the chief
ministers and lord chancellors of kings of England had
_. .,„ been ecclesiastics. This rule was now
Sir 1 homas
More lord broken through. The Dukes of Norfolk and
Suffolk were made chief ministers and Sir
Thomas More lord chancellor. Lastly, a parliament was
called.
A crisis had come in English history. The parliament
of 1529 was to England what the Diet of Worms might
„ ,. have been to Germany. The English Ccm-
Parhament \
of 1529. A mons made use of this parliament, as the
English his- Germans did of the Diet of Worms, to make
Diltof6 the complaints against the clergy and the eccle-
Worms in siastical courts. For a long time the people
h'istory. of England, like the Germans, had resisted
the power of the ecclesiastical empire. The freedom of
the clergy from the jurisdiction of the secular courts on
the one hand, the jurisdiction of the ecclesi-
Complamts
against the astical courts on the other hand over laymen
ecdSasntical in such matters as marriages, probates of
wills, and the distribution of property
amongst the next of kin on the death of the owner, were
real and long-standing grievances. The clergy, by their
CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 183
ecclesiastical courts, harassed and taxed the people be-
yond endurance. The character of the clergy and monks
was also grievously complained of. Wolsey .„ ,
Wolsey s
had sought, as Cardinal Morton had done attempts at
before him, to reform these abuses. Him- refonu^under
self a cardinal and legate, he had sought J***1 aulho"
powers from the Pope to repress the evils ; rr,, , .
1 r * The king
to visit and even suppress some of the worst and parlia-
of the monasteries and correct the clergy ; Ulu" up°the
and his scheme, partly carried out, was to matter-
found colleges at the universities out of the proceeds.
This was all very well as far as it went, but it never went
far enough to be of much use, and now the time of re-
formation under papal authority was passed. Both king
and parliament were in a mind to undertake themselves
the needed ecclesiastical reforms.
A petition, describing at length the ecclesiastical
grievances, was laid by the Commons before the king.
The king submitted it to the bishops, at the
... Petition of
same time requiring henceforth that no new theCom-
law should be passed by the clergy in eon- Celestas?118
vocation, any more than in parliament. '"•llKriev"
J ' ' ances.
without his royal consent. The bishops tried
to explain away the complaints, but before parliament
was prorogued acts were passed fixing at reasonable sums
the amounts to be demanded for probate of wills and
funeral fees, prohibiting the clergy from engaging in
secular business, or holding too many benefices, and
obliging them to reside in their parishes.
These were matters of practical reform, such as Colct
had urged in his sermon to convocation in 151 1. He
had urged that the clergy in convocation
should take up these reforms, and reform reforms.
themselves. They had let eighteen years slip by without
1 84 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pi. hi.
doing it, and now the bolder power of Parliament was
over-ruling their feeble opposition.
Meanwhile the divorce question went into another
phase. Cranmer now came on to the scene. He was
The divorce soon to De tne chief ecclesiastical adviser oi
before the li<^ no longer to be heresy. The
instead of king's assent was made necessary to ecclc-
the Pope. . G. . .. _. _ ,..,..
siastical ordinances. The Pope s jurisdiction
in England was abolished and transferred to the king.
Lastly he assumed the title of supreme head of the
Church of England, which was finally confirmed by
Parliament in 1534.
„, , The king meanwhile determined to deal
The king . . &
marries Anne with his own marriage. In defiance of the
revokcM" e Pope, he married Anne Boleyn in January
from Rome x 532_3- The marriage with Catherine was
•snow com- declared null and void by Cranmer, now
Archbishop of Canterbury, and by act of
pleted.
ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 185
parliament. Thus the breach with Rome was complete.
England had, in fact, revolted from the ecclesiastical em-
pire, by the joint action of king and parliament, and with
the assent, however reluctant, even of the clergy.
(/i) Heresy still punished in England.
Now it will be observed that all this came to pass
without any change of religious creed, without England
becoming Lutheran or Protestant. All the while heresy
was a crime against which king and parliament and
clergy were equally severe. The breach with Thcn h ul
Rome made no difference on this point, ex- been no
i nan
cept that speaking against the Pope was no religious
longer heresy. There was as stern a deter-
mination as ever to prevent the spread of persecuted?
heresy in England. Wolsey's dying advice Xm'yvw,//
to Henry VIII. in November 1530 was not to the transla-
• ■ r 1 , . t"r"t ,hc
let the new pernicious sect of the Lutherai ta-
spread in England. Tindal, the noble single-
minded Englishman to whom we owe the first translation
of the New Testament into English, was all this while
watched and tracked and persecuted from place to place
as a dangerous foe. Fired with zeal 1>\ leading the New
Testament of Erasmus, to give the English people access
to its truths in the " vulgar tongue," he pursued his ob-
ject with a heroism and patriotism which should make his
name dear to Englishmen. Strange was it that one of his
persecutors was Sir Thomas More, who, in his "Utopia,"
had expressed views in favour of religious toleration.
It was just after the sack of Rome that More pub-
lished his opinion that heresy, being dangerous to the
state, ought to be punished in England, lest sir Thomas
it should lead to similar results to those it had au'|[J,^ /l'1
led to on the Continent. It was only a few '""^
£86 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
momAs after, that when, on the fall of Wolsey in 1529, he
was made lord chancellor, he had to swear by his oath of
office, amongst other things, to cany out the laws against
heresy. He became now, by virtue of his office, the
public prosecutor of heretics. The bishops were his most
active police, and ever and anon poor men were handed
over to him for examination and legal punishment. The
times were barbarous. Torture was used in the examina-
tion of criminals and of heretics also, and, it can hardly
be doubted, even in the presence of Sir Thomas More.
Yet, in a certain way, More's gentleness showed itself
even in persecution. By the law of the land, heretics
must abjure or be burned. More tried hard to save both
their bodies and souls. Me \\^v(\ every means in his
power to induce them to abjure. During the first two
years of his chancellorship he staved off the evil day.
Every single heretic abjured ; no single fire had yet
been lit in Smithtield during his rule ; but, in the last six
months of it, three abjured heretics relapsing into heresy
were burned under his authority, the dying martyrs'
prayers rising from the stake, "May the Lord forgive Sir
Thomas More!" " May the Lord open the eyes of Sir
Thomas More !"
Strange was it that during these sad months, while
More was persecuting others for conscience' sake, he
himself had to choose between his own conscience and
death.
(/) Execution of Sir Thomas More (1535).
We have seen that he had come to the conviction that
the Pope was head of the Church by divine authority.
.. , . .. He had held his post of Lord Chancellor so
More himself r
has to suffer long as the action of Parliament involved
for conscience' , , , , r r .
sake. only the much needed reform of ecclesias-
tical abuses — till 1532. But so soon as, in
ck. ii. Revolt of England from Rome* 187
1532, he saw the breach with Rome was inevitable, and
that Henry VIII. would delay no longer, he resigned the
seals and retired into the bosom of his home at Chelsea
— that home which Erasmus had made known all over
Europe as a pattern in respect of domestic virtue, cul-
ture, and happiness.
More had firmly told the king that he disapproved of
the divorce, both before and after he was lord chancel-
lor. He declined to be present at Anne Boleyn's coro-
nation ; and when warned and threatened by order of
the king, his brave reply was that threats were argu-
ments for children, not for kim. When the oath ac-
knowledging Anne Boleyn .is the lawful wife of Henry
VI 1 1. was administered to him, he refused to take it.
Bishop Fisher alone among the whole bench ..
r ° More and
of bishops did the same. More and Fisher Fisher sent
., r it rp , to the Tower.
were therefore sent to the lower.
Himself in prison for conscience' sake, More's thoughts
turned to the heretics against whom he had been so zea-
lous ; and he left a paper for his friends warning them
if ever, by reason of their office, they had to punish
others, not to let their zeal outrun their charity. It was,
perhaps, a confession that it had been so with him. He
pondered also on the divisions in the Church, and ex-
pressed his hopes that after all there might be a recon-
ciliation between Catholics and Protestants.
His wife visited him in prison, and reminded him of
his home and his peril in not taking the oath. 'Good
Mistress Alice,' he replied to her, 'tell me one thing: Is
not this house as nigh heaven as mine own ?'
His beloved daughter Margaret Roper visited him of-
ten, and the story of his love for her and her daughterly
affection for him, has become a favourite theme of his-
torians, painters, and poets.
188 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
His trial, like that of the Duke of Buckingham, was
a typical Tudor trial. It was not a question of guilt or
innocence, but of state necessity. Anne Boleyn's star
being in the ascendant, Sir Thomas More and Bishop
Fisher must die.
This is Mr. Froude's account of More's death :
' The four days which remained to him he spent in
' prayer, and in severe bodily discipline. On the night
„ . 'of the 5th of Julv, although he did not
Execution of J
Sir Thomas ' know the time which had been fixed for
More. ... . . , . . . . .
his execution, yet, with an instinctive feel-
' ing that it was near, he sent his daughtei Margaret his
' hair-shirt and whip, as having no more need of them,
'with a parting blessing of affection.
' He then lay down and slept quietly. At daybreak
' he was awoke by the entrance of Sir Thomas Pope, who
'had come to confirm his anticipations, and to tell him
' that it was the king's pleasure that he should suffer at
' 9 o'clock that morning. He received the news with
'utter composure. " I am much bounden to the king,"
'he said, " for the benefits and honours he has bestowed
'"upon me; and, so help me God, most of all am I
' " bounden to him that it pleaseth his Majesty to rid me
' " shortly out of the miseries of this present world."
' Pope told him the king desired he would not use
' many words on the scaffold. " Mr. Pope," he answered,
' " you do well to give me warning; for, otherwise, I had
'"purposed somewhat to have spoken, but no matter
' " therewith his grace should have cause to be offended.
'" Howbeit, whatever I intended, I shall obey his High-
■ " ness1 command."
' He afterwards discussed the arrangements for his
' funeral, at which he begged that his family might be
' present; and when all was settled, Pope rose to leave
CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 109
'him. He was an old friend. He took More's hand
' and wrung it, and, quite overcome, burst into tears.
' " Quiet yourself, Mr. Pope," More said, " and be not
' " discomfited, for I trust we shall once see each other
' " full merrily, when we shall live and love together in
"" eternal bliss."
' So about 9 of the clock he was brought by the lieu-
tenant out of the Tower, his beard being long, which
' fashion he had never before used — his face pale and
1 lean, carrying in his hands a red cross, casting his eyes
' often toward heaven. He had been unpopular as a
'judge, and one or two persons in the crowd were inso-
' lent to him ; but the distance was short, and soon over,
' as all else was nearly over now.
' The scaffold had been awkwardly erected, and shook
1 as he placed his foot upon the ladder. " See me safe
' " up," he said to Kingston ; " for my coming down I
1 " can shift for myself." He began to speak to the pco-
1 pie, but the sheriff begged him not to proceed; and
'he contented himself with asking for their prayers, and
'desiring them to bear witness for him that he died in
' the faith of the holy Catholic Church, and a faithful
'servant of God and the king. lie then repeated the
' Miserere Psalm on his knees; and when he had ended
' and had arisen, the executioner, with an emotion which
'promised ill for the manner in which his part would be
' accomplished, begged his forgiveness. More kissed
'him. "Thou art to do me the greatest benefit that I
' " can receive," he said ; " pluck up thy spirit, man, and
' " be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very
' " short ; take heed, therefore, that thou strike not awry
' " for saving of thine honesty." The executioner offered
'to tie his eyes. " I will cover them myself," he said ;
'and, binding them in a cloth which he had brought
190 Results of the Protestant Revolution. PT. ill
' \yith him, he knelt and laid his head upon the block.
' The fatal stroke was about to fall, when he signed for a
' moment's delay, while he moved aside his beard.
' " Pity that should be cut," he murmured, " that has
' " not committed treason." With which strange words —
'the strangest, perhaps, ever uttered at such a time — the
' lips famous through Europe for eloquence and wisdom
' closed for ever.'
(k) Death of Erasmus. (1536).
The news of the Death of Sir Thomas More in 1535
reached Erasmus in old age and suffering from illness,
„ but labouring still with his pen to the last.
Erasmus . .rt * .
dies soon He was writing a book on the Purity of the
Church,' and in the preface he described
his friend as 'a soul purer than snow.' He lived only a
few months longer, died in 1536, and was buried in the
cathedral at Basle with every token of respect.
Not forty years had passed since Erasmus had first
met Coletat Oxford, and since the three Oxford students
_ , „ whom for the sake of distinction we have
1 he work of
the Oxford called the Oxford Reformers, joined heart
had pro-f and soul in that fellow-work which had
results Sreat caught its inspiration from Florence. How
much had come out of their fellow-work !
Colct, the one who brought the inspiration from Flo-
rence, had died in 15 19, before the crisis came. But
even then the work of the Oxford Reformers was already
in one sense done. They had sown their seed. The
New Testament of Erasmus was already given to the
world, and nothing had so paved the way for the Protes-
tant Reformation as that great work had done. Since
Colet's death, Erasmus and More had never met. Each
had taken his own line. More was driven far further
CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 191
into reaction than Erasmus. After the Peasants' War
and the sack of Rome, Erasmus still preached tolerance
on the one hand, and satirized the monks and school-
men on the other hand. And his satire was just as
bitter in these later writings as it had been in the
'Praise of Folly.' But he too, like More, held on to
their old hatred of schism, preached concord in the
Church, and longed for a reconciliation between the
contending parties.
(/) Dissolution of the Monasteries, and Reform of the
Universities 1536.
The bitter satire of Erasmus upon the monks bore
fruit sooner than he himself expected, and especially in
England. The necessity of a thorough re- _ ,
° J ° 1 he work set
form in the monasteries was now every, a going by
where acknowledged, and there was no Reformers
longer any reason to wait for bulls from goes on-
Rome before beginning the work. The king was in a
mood to humble the monks. The bishops and secular
clergy had bowed their heads to the royal supremacy.
The time now for the monks and abbots had come.
Within a few months of More's death, a commission
was issued by Thomas Cromwell (the minis-
J . Cromwell,
ter who was now vicegerent of the new now ecciesi-
royal ecclesiastical authority), for a general terlQf Henry
visitation of the monasteries. aires' into
The popular complaints against them were the state of
/- 1 1 , -i /- 1 1 1 j 1 tne rnonas-
not found to be baseless. Scandal had long teries.
been busy about the morals of the monks.
The commissioners found them on inquiry worse, even
than scandal had whispered, and reported to Parliament
that two-thirds of the monks were leading vicious lives
under cover of their cowls and hoods.
192 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
Erasmus, in his ' Colloquies,' had spread all over
Europe his suspicions that the relics by which the monks
attracted so many pilgrims, and so much wealth in offer-
ings to their shrines, were false and their miracles pre-
. , tended. He had visited and described both
And into
shrines and the two great English shrines of ' St..
Thomas a Becket ' and ' Our Lady of
Walsingham,' and had dared to hint that the congealed
milk of the Virgin exhibited at the one was a mixture of
chalk and white of egg, and that the immense wealth
of the other would be of more use if given to the poor.
The result of the royal inquiry convinced Henry VIII.
that the 'milk of our Lady' was ' chalk or white lead,'
and that Thomas k Becket was no saint at all, but a
rebel against the royal prerogative of Henry II.
The result of the visitation was the dissolution at once
^. , . „ of the smaller, and a few years afterwards
Dissolution of
the monaste- of the larger monasteries, the monks being
"traction of pensioned off, and the remainder of their
shrmes. vasj. estates being vested in the king.
The universities as well as the monasteries were visited
by the Commissioners, and that reform was carried out
„ „ , , at the universities which Colet, forty years
Reform of the J J
Universities. before, had begun at Oxford; a reform
which converted them from schools of the
old into schools of the new learning. ' The learning of
the wholesome doctrines of Almighty God and the three
tongues, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, which be requisite
for the understanding of Scripture,' were specially en-
joined, while the old scholastic text-books became waste
paper and were treated as such.
These were the final labors of the memorable Parlia-
, ment which begun in 1 520, accomplished the
Parliament of _& ^ y' r
1529-36 revolt from Rome, and was now dissolved
dissolved. • y-
in 1536.
CH. II. Revolt of England from Rome. 193
One step further the Reformation went under Cran-
mer and Cromwell. In 1536 the Scriptures „
x- i- f , • -- Tindal's trans-
themselves, 111 the English translation of lationofthe
Tindal, revised and completed by Cover- sanctioned-
dale, were ordered to be placed in every
church, and the clergy were instructed to exhort all men
to read them. Thus England owes the basis of her no-
ble translation of the Bible to William Tindal. He lived
to see it thus published by royal authority,
. r „ . . . . Martyrdom of
but soon after fell a victim to persecution in Tindal.
Flanders, and ended his heroic life in a
martyr's death.
(7/z) Later Years of Henry VIII. (1 536-1 547).
Jn 1536 Oueen Catherine died, and in the same year
the still more miserable Anne Boleyn was
divorced, and, with the partners of her al- Annelkieyn.
leged guilt, beheaded.
The sole offspring of this ill-fated marriage was the
Princess Elizabeth, and she now, like the Princess Mary,
was declared illegitimate, and thus the succession was
again uncertain.
To meet this difficulty the king married his third
queen, ¥ane Seymour, and parliament set- „
1 j 1 • i «• • j Henry VIII.
tied the succession upon her offspring, and marries Jane
in default of a direct heir, upon such person eymour-
as Henry VIII. should name in his will.
Meanwhile, this time of renewed unsettlement was
chosen by the papal party for a general rebellion, known
as ' The Pilgrimage of Grace.' Reforms had . „ ,
f , * J T A Catholic re-
gc ne too fast for many. It was not to be beliion breaks
expected that so great a change should meet North,
willh no opposition. It would have been
strange if Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher had
o
194 Results of the Protestant Revolution. FT. III.
been the only martyrs on the papal side. The rebellion
was chiefly in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. It was headed
by some of the old aristocracy, and no doubt was fo-
mented by the issue just before of a papal
fomented by . „ , . . . T^
the Pope and bull of excommunication against Henry
VIII., and by expectations of foreign aid.
Reginald Pole, a relation of the king's, and afterwards
legate and Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury under
Queen Mary, did his best, under papal encouragement,
to bring about a holy war against England, and thereby
enforce obedience to the papal power. But
It is quelled. ill
these schemes of war from without came to
nought, and the insurrection within was promptly met
and quelled. The royal supremacy was vindicated by
the execution of the chief rebels, and the Catholic reac-
tion thus postponed till the days of Queen Mary.
Probably the birth at this moment of a long-desired
prince (afterwards Jul ward VI.), did as much as the
Birth of execution of the rebels to assure the stability
Edward VI 0f Henry's throne. But it cost the life of the
and death of J
the Queen. queen-mother, and made another marriage
a state necessity. While Cromwell was pursuing his
Henry VIII. policy, dissolving the remaining monasteries,
mames demolishing the shrines of Walsimrham and
Anne of ° °
Cleves, Canterbury, and transferring their wealth to
the royal exchequer, he had once more to arrange a
match for Henry. His choice fell upon Anne of Cleves, a
connexion of the Elector of Saxony. It fell in with Crom-
well's policy to use the opportunity to bring about a Prot-
estant alliance, and Henry married in 1 539 Anne of Cleves.
But how was it likely that he should fall in love with
a fourth wife who was plain-looking and spoke not a word
, , of English ? He soon was weary of his new
but does not ° »
like her. match, and as Wolscy was sacrificed to se-
ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 195
cure the divorce of Catherine, so Cromwell was now
sacrificed to secure a divorce from Anne of Cromwell
Cloves. Another Tudor trial, with less show sacrificed to
get rid of her.
of justice even than those of the Duke of
Buckingham and Sir Thomas More, paved the way for
the state necessity. Cromwell, like Cranmer, had been
all along half a Protestant at heart. Unless he had been,
he could hardly have carried through as he did for the
king, the successful revolt of England from the ecclesi-
astical empire of Rome. The king had profited by that,
but he now meant to profit by Cromwell's fall. So Crom-
well died upon the scaffold as a traitor.
Henry was soon rid of Anne of Cleves. The Pro-
testant alliance fell through. A sort of reconciliation was
made with Charles V., who naturally hated Cromwell
more even than he had distrusted Wolsey. And a sort
of colour of religion was given to the whole ReConcilia-
procecding by the more stringent repression j'"" uith
of those heresies towards which the fallen
minister was said to have been unduly lenient. This
was in 1540.
The king now married the guilty and unfortunate
Catherine Howard, whose turn to die on the scaffold
came (so soon !) in 1542; and then at last Henry
came the final marriage with Catherine Parr, VIII.'s last
0 two mar-
a virtuous widow, who proved an honoura- riages.
ble and efficient royal nurse during the king's few re-
maining years.
These years of his decaying health were marked by
the renewal of the alliance with Charles V. and breaches
of peace with Francis I. Henry's foreign Alliance
policy ended as it had begun under the wit,h Spain,
1 J ° and wars
shadow of Spanish ascendancy, threatened with France.
English invasion of France, French retaliative invasions
196 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. nr.
of England, and financial difficulties which always fol-
lowed in the wake of war. The treasures of Henry VII.
sufficed not to supply the means for Henry VIII. 's
early wars with France. So again, in spite
money! of the wealth which came to the Crown from
the dissolution of monasteries and the destruction of the
shrines, the king in his last years found himself with an
empty exchequer, and obliged to debase the coinage to
obtain the supplies he wanted. He died in
Henry VIII. Jan. 1 547 — the year after the death of Luther,
m 1547- just as cjvji war broke out in Germany, and
Charles V. set about conquering Germany with his
Spanish soldiers.
While Germany was passing through this struggle,
England was becoming more and more Protestant, under
Reform goes tne guidance of Cranmcr, who managed the
on during ecclesiastical affairs of England in the short
the reign of .
Edward vi. reign of Edward VI.
But a reaction was to follow. On Edward VI. 's death
in 1553 the Princess Mary became queen.
reaction under A Catholic herself, and the wife of Philip II.
Queen Mary. Qf ^^ ^ rcstored the Catholic faith in
England, and tried to quench the English Protestant
spirit in blood. But she died in 1558 — the same year as
„ , , , Charles V.^and under her successor, the
England be- i r
comes finally Protestant Queen Elizabeth, the revolt of
unde^Queen England from Rome became once for all an
Elizabeth. established fact. Thenceforth, both in po-
litics and in doctrine, England was a Protestant state.
(n) Influence of Henry VIII.\s reign on the English
Constitution.
It has been sometimes said that Henry VIII. 's reign
was the reign of a tyrant, and that during his reign the
ch. ii. Revolt of England from Rome. 197
English parliament was subservient and
. , How far the
cringing to the monarch. constitution
To judge of this matter rightly we must ^l™m~
remember that England was passing through
a great crisis in her history which we have likened to
that which was marked by the Diet of Worms in Ger-
man history. How different the English from the Ger-
man result ! At the Diet of Worms the Em- m
, , . . . , The revolt
peror and princes acted in opposition to the from Rome
German people ; the necessary reforms were by°constit!i-
not made, and so there came revolution. In tlonal mcans-
the parliament of 1529-36 the king and House of Com-
mons acted together, and made the necessary reforms ;
the clergy submitted to them when they saw they must,
the dissolution of the monasteries removed the abbots
from the House of Lords and placed the lay lords in a
majority, and so in the end England was forced from
the yoke of the ecclesiastical empire of Rome by con-
stitutional means, without the revolutions and civil wars
which followed in Germany.
That such a revolution was peaceably wrought by
parliament under the guidance of the king's
ministers, Cromwell and Cranmer, sustained payment °f
by most important precedents the power of main^inod.
parliament in the constitution.
During his wars, Henry VIII. 's ministers, especially
Wolsey, resorted to benevolences and forced loans to
obtain supplies. But the fall of Wolsey,
, . , . It preserved its
and on later occasions the sanction of par- control over
liament obtained afterwards by way of in- taxatI0n-
demnity for acts admitted to be illegal, kept up the con-
stitutional principle that the king could levy no taxes
without the consent of parliament. The real struggle
on this matter came in the days of the Stuarts.
198 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
The new ecclesiastical powers of the king as supreme
head of the Church gave rise to new branches of juris-
. , , diction, some of which were of a dangerous
And over the . °
making of kind. Parliament also, by statute, gave to
new laws. , , . , . ...
the king s proclamation, within a very re-
stricted range, the force of statutes, but this was repealed
in the next reign. And on the whole, the second great
constitutional principle on which English freedom is
based was well maintained ; viz., that the king could
make no new laws without consent of parliament,
Bearing these things in mind it would be hard to deny
that the parliaments of Henry VIII. deserve
On the whole r " . .
the parliaments tolerably well of Englishmen, considering
deservewell of "the greatness of the crisis through which
Englishmen. ^ bark Qf thc gtate ha(J tQ be stcerc(i }n
their time.
The greatest blots upon the reign of Henry VIII. were
thc unjust trials for treason by which the most faithful
of ministers were sacrificed to clear away
Unjust State , ,. , ,
trials the chief obstacles to royal policy, and the way that
reign of Henry sometimes justice was sacrificed to the per-
V111- sonal wishes or even passions of the king in
connexion with his unhappy matrimonial caprices.
These things will always stain the memory of Henry
VIII., but regarding his reign as a whole it would be
England fared unfair to forget that in it a great crisis was
SanVrance passed through without civil war, which left
and Spain. England freed from the ecclesiastical em-
pire of Rome, and under a constitutional monarchy,
while France and Spain were left to struggle for cen-
turies more under the double tyranny of the ecclesiasti-
cal empire and their own absolute kings.
CH. in. Denmark and Sweden. 199
CHAPTER ITT.
REVOLT OF DENMARK AND SWEDEN AND (LATER) OF
THE NETHERLANDS.
(a) Denmark and Sweden (1523-/560).
Denmark and Sweden both revolted from Rome, but
under peculiar circumstances. From 1520 to 1525 they
had both been governed by one king — a
wretched tyrant — Christian II., who legally and Sweden
1111 1 f tt • .1 1 throw off the
had little power, but following the royal yokc 0f Lhris-
fashion of the day, tried to make himself an [^"pamte.
absolute monarch. Denmark and Sweden
both rebelled, dethroned Christian II., and then went
their several ways.
In Sweden the people, i. c. the citizens and then the
peasantry, were sick of the tyranny of their nobles and
clergy, as well as their king, and sighed for The Swedes
a good king strong enough to curb them. Vasa their
It was the old story, what the citizens and kms-
peasantry of Germany had long sighed for in vain. But
in Sweden they got what they wanted. They elected as
king Gustavus Vasa, a noble who had taken the popular
side against their former tyrant ; and having ele< I d him,
they backed him in carrying out in Sweden very much
the same sort of reforms as Henry VIII. had Sweden, under
carried out in England. The clergy were ^;oltt^T
humbled, their property seized by the crown, nation,
and Sweden, roused to a sense of national life under
Gustavus Vasa, took its place among modern nations. It
was soon to play a prominent part in the great struggle
between Catholic and Protestant powers. The Swedish
king, Gustavus Adolphus, was the greatest of the Pro-
testant leaders in the Thirty Years' War.
200 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
In Denmark also (and Norway was under the same
crown) a new monarchy succeeded to that of the ex-
Denmark also, pelled tyrant. The nobles joined the crown
idng/becomeT m crushing the power of the clergy. The
Protestant. Danish monarchy became established on the
ruins of the Church. Lutheranism was encouraged.
Denmark became a Protestant state, and took part, like
Sweden, on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' War.
{b) The Revolt of the Netherlands {/jSi).
The last of the revolts from Rome was that of the
Netherlands. It was a revolt not only from Rome but
also from Spain. It does not fall altogether within the
limits of the era, and so requires only brief notice here.
Philip II., king of Spain and husband of the English
queen Mary, tried to enforce the double yoke of Spain
and Rome upon the Netherlander. The Netherlands,
it will be remembered, belonged to the Burgundian pro-
p .. f vinces which came to the Spanish crown by
Philip II to the marriage alliance of the mother of
Nether- Charles V. He was a Netherlander, and as
SpahTandto sucn popular ; but his son, Philip II., was a
Rome. Spaniard, and felt to be a foreign tyrant.
He had entered into close alliance with Rome. If he
could, he would have conquered all countries which had
revolted from Rome ; and in restoring them to Rome,
he would have liked to have made them into Spanish
provinces. It was in pursuance of these ideas that he
encouraged Queen Mary's restoration of the Catholic
faith in England, and sent his 'Spanish Armada' to
conquer the Protestant Queen Elizabeth. In the same
spirit he sent his cruel minister, the Duke of Alva, to
force into submission his rebellious subjects in the
Netherlands, and to fasten on their necks the double
ch. iv. The Genevan Reformers. 201
yoke of Spain and Rome. The result was The
the revolt of the Netherlands under the and the
Prince of Orange. After a terrible Strug- Provinces*
gle, it was at last successful, and ended in Pero°™tant.
the complete escape of the northern pro- nation.
vinces from both the Spanish and Papal yoke. This
was in 1581. From that date the 'United Provinces'
took their place, like Sweden and Denmark, among the
Protestant nations of Europe.
CHAPTER IV.
THE GENEVAN REFORMERS.
(a) Rise of a new School of Reform.
The force of the Protestant Revolution was not wholly
spent in these national revolts from Rome.
Although apart from them there was a Protestant
movement going on in the minds of the peo- A protestant
pie, both in those nations which revolted m°ye°"nt
1 which was
from Rome and in those which did not. not national,
We must now turn our attention to the rise of a new
school of reform, which led to remarkable results.
Luther was too national — too German — a reformer, to
admit of his becoming the universal prophet
r t-. • 11 1 11-, bllt which
of Protestantism all over the world. Den- influenced
mark, Sweden, and Norway, coming under testantsof
German influence, did indeed become Erance\
England,
Lutheran ; but the Protestants of France, Scotland,
, . and America
England, Scotland, and America are not more than
and never have been Lutherans. They Luthcrdid-
came more under the influence of the Genevan re-
formers, of whom we must now speak.
202 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. in.
(b) John Calvin.
The chief of these was John Calvin. He was a
Frenchman, born in 1509, and so was twenty-five years
John Calvin younger than Luther. He was educated at
bom 1509. the universities of Paris and Orleans,
adopted the Augustinian theology, as Wiclif, Huss, and
Luther had done before him, and became a Protestant.
In France heretics were burned, so he left his home to
travel in Italy and Germany. In 1536, just as Erasmus
was passing to his rest, he came to Basle, and began his
t public work as a Protestant reformer by
stitutes,' publishing his ' Institutes of the Christian
iogicalSform Religion.' It was these 'Institutes' of Cal-
J° c,?e. . . , vin which gave rigid logical scholastic form
' Calvinistic => & o
doctrines. to those Augustinian doctrines which, as we
have said, were held in common by most Protestant
reformers from Wiclif to Luther, but which have been
since called 'Calvinistic' He differed from Luther both
in theory and practice, on those points about which
Zwingle and Luther had quarrelled. He rejected tran-
substantiation, which Luther did not altogether ; and he
founded his Church, like Zwingle, on the republican
basis of the congregation rather than, as Luther did, on
the civil power of the prince. He thus was in a sense
more Protestant than Luther, though at that time only
the Lutherans were called Protestants.
Geneva soon became the sphere of his actions. It was
in a state of anarchy, having rebelled from its bishop,
who had been practically both ecclesiastical
Calvin settles . .
at Geneva. and civil ruler m one. Other French re-
formers had settled at Geneva before Calvin,
and these shared his stern Protestant doctrines. But
Calvin soon proved the most powerful preacher. Like
(jh. iv. The Genevan Reformers. 203
Savonarola, he rebuked the vices of the people from the
pulpit. At first this made him unpopular, „
r f . r J- Becomes a
and he was driven away; but in 1541 he was kind of dictator
recalled by the people, and made practi- state? ^
cally both civil and religious dictator of the
little state.
He was in a sense Protestant Pope of Geneva, but de-
riving his power from the congregation. He and his
consistory held it their duty to force men to lead moral
lives, go to church, give up dice, dancing-, „
° \ ° His severe dis-
swearmg, and so forth ; and the council of cipiine and in-
the city supported this severe exercise of ec-
clesiastical power by their civil authority. Thus for
twenty years Geneva was under the rule of Calvin and
his fellow ' saints ;' and an intolerant despotic rule it was.
Men were excommunicated for insulting Calvin, and sent
to prison for mocking at his sermons. To impugn his
doctrine was death or banishment. Hired spies watched
people's conduct, and every unseemly word dropped in
the street came to the ear of the elders. Children were
liable to public punishment for insulting their parents,
and men and women were drowned in the Rhone for
sensual sins. Witchcraft and heresy were capital
crimes ; and one heretic, Servetus, was burned, with his
books hung to his girdle, for honest difference of opinion
from Calvin on an abstruse point of divinity.
The same view of the functions of the Church which
led him to exercise this severe discipline, led him also to
control education. He founded academies TT r
He founds
and schools ; and when his system was ap- schools.
plied to Scotland, as it afterwards was under
John Knox, a school as well as a church was planted in
every parish.
204 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
(c) Influence of the Genevan School on Western
Protestantism.
Whatever Calvin did at Geneva would have mattered
little to the world if it had stopped there ; but it did
TT. . „ not. The historical importance of Calvin
His influence r
on Western lies in the fact that he impressed upon West-
Protestantism. . ........ .
ern Protestantism his rigid scholastic creed
and his views of ecclesiastical discipline.
The Protestants of France, called Huguenots, were
and are mainly the offspring of Calvinism.
SlJSt John Knox' the reformer of Scotland, and
the Scotch the Scotch Covenanters, were also disciples
Covenanters, r
the English of Calvin; and so Scotch Protestantism re-
the 'Pilgrim ccived its impress from Geneva. The Puri-
ofNev^Eng- tans of England were also Calvinists. Crom-
Jand, all of the weu was a Calvinist, and the rule of his
Genevan
school. 'saints' was on the Genevan model. The
Pilgrim Fathers took with them from Eng-
land to the New England across the Atlantic the Calvin-
istic creed, and, alas ! its intolerance too. So engrained
was it in their theological mind that, even though them-
selves fleeing from persecution, they themselves perse-
cuted in the land of their refuge. Under the rule of the
Boston saints there was as little religious liberty as under
the rule of Calvin at Geneva.
Nevertheless, the offspring of the Genevan school of
reform deserve well of history. However narrow and
__. .. hard in their creed and Puritanic in theii
lheir his-
torical lm- manners, they were men of a sturdy Spartan
ancMn"' tvPe» ready to bear any amount of persecu-
nationli°n tlon anc* to Pusn through any difficulties,
character. democratic in their spirit and aggressive in
their zeal. The banishment of the Huguenots from
ch. v. Reform within the Catholic Church. 205
France took away the backbone of her religious life.
Scotland would not be what she is but for Knox and his
parish schools. England could not afford to lose the
Puritan blood which mixes in her veins. New England
owes a rich inheritance of stern virtues to her ' Pilgrim
Fathers.'
CHAPTER V.
REFORM WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
(a) The Italian Reformers (to 1 541 ).
One of the results of the Protestant revolution was the
reform of the Catholic Church itself.
We ought never to forget that the Roman Catholic
Church of our own times is, in fact, a reformed Church
as well as the Protestant Churches. And we must now
have patience enough to trace how and by whom its re-
form was effected.
Good men of all parties had for long seen the neces-
sity of a practical reform in the morals of the pope, clergy,
and monks. And we have seen that the necessity was
recognized in high quarters. Ferdinand and Isabella's
great minister, Cardinal Ximenes, and the English min-
isters, Cardinal Morton and Cardinal Wol- Efforts at
sey — three cardinals all of great power and [^th™ Wlth"
undoubted loyalty to Rome — even went so Church.
far as to get bulls from the Pope, authorizing them to visit
and reform the monasteries. All good men cried out
against the crimes of such a pope as Alexander VI. And
it is not right to charge the Catholic Church wholesale
with these crimes any more than it would be to charge the
English nation with the matrimonial sins of Henry VIII.
There was so strong a feeling all through the Church
2o6 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt.
hi.
against these scandals that, after what had happened,
Improve- tneY were not likely to occur again. The
Siaracte?of P°Pes wno came after Alexander VI. were
popes. not angels, but they were outwardly more
decent than he, at all events. Julius II., as we have
seen, was the fighting pope. The scandal in his case
was his lust of war and the extension of the Papal terri-
tory. Leo X. cared more for art and literature than for
war, but he, too, had his faults, and the scandal in his
case was a doubt whether, after all, he really believed in
Christianity. Adrian VI. was an earnest and stern mor-
al reformer — too stern for the times — and his reign was
too short to produce much result. Clement VII. was a
better man than many, though of blundering politics,
letting down the Papal power, and becoming at last
the prisoner and the tool of his Spanish conqueror
Charles V.
All this while there were men in Italy of earnest
Christian feeling who, like the Oxford reformers, were
men of the new school on the one hand, and opposed to
the semi-pagan skepticism of the mere ' humanists ' of
Italy on the other hand. These men longed for reform,
not only in morals but also in doctrine. They wanted
„,, ,. religion to be made a thing of the heart, that
1 he media- ° °
ting reformers the gross superstition connected with indul-
gences and other abuses should be set aside,
and some of them held the Augustinian doctrine of jus-
tification by faith. This gave them a sort of sympathy
even with Luther, and they wanted such a reform of
the Church as they hoped would win back the Protes-
Valdez Pole tants into her fold. Juan de Valdez, brother
ContaHni. 0f Charles V.'s secretary (from whose
writings we have more than once quoted), was one
of them. Reginald Pole (who opposed Henry VII I. 's
CH. v. Reform within the Catholic Church. 207
revolt from Rome so strongly) and Gaspar Contci7'i?ii (a
Venetian nobleman of the highest character and influ-
ence in court circles) were of their number. They had
among them eloquent preachers and ladies of rank, for-
tune, and beauty. They held together and exerted
much influence, and there was a time when they seemed
to be not without chance of success as mediators between
the extreme Catholic and Protestant parties.
Paul III. became pope in 1534, and the hopes of th^
reform party were raised by his making Pole and Con-
tarini and some others of their friends cardi- Paul III.
nals. These men were on the most friendly "fd^m "m
terms with Erasmus, who in his old age was cardinals,
urging concord on religious parties and purity on the
Church. It was rumoured that Erasmus himself was to
be made a cardinal, and it was said that a red hat was
on the way to Bishop Fisher when he was executed by
Henry VIII.
It was some of these and other signs of the times
which cheered Sir Thomas More in his prison with the
belief that better days were coming, that there was at
least some chance of a reconciliation with the Protestants,
and a healing of the schism by which the Church was
rent. The prospect was for the moment promising.
Paul III. wrote to Erasmus, telling him that he intended
to call a council (as Erasmus had urged his Chances of a
predecessors to do) and asking for his in- rcconciija-
,,,',.. 1 • 1 tion Wltn
fluence and help both before and in the Protestants
council. But things moved slowly. Cardinal Jg1" paul
Contarini was more zealous for a council
than the Pope, who was only half-inclined to it, fearing
lest it might abridge his power. At length in 1541 — five
years after the death of Erasmus — the Pope deputed
2o8 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill.
. . Contarini to meet the Protestants at the Diet
Contarmi
and Melanch- of Ratisbon, and to try whether a reconcilia-
make peace tion could be arranged with them. He was
of ■ KatL'boii. met b>' thc £cntle Melanchthon (Luther dis-
trusting the whole thing and keeping away),
and they agreed upon the doctrine of justification by
faith as the basis of reunion. For a moment a peace
seemed within reach. But alas ! other motives came in
But the Pope on the Pope's side. Francis I. urged upon
draws back. j^ ^^ concorci ancj unity in Germany
would make the Emperor — their common enemy — dan-
gerously strong ; and so Paul III. drew back.
On the other side, Luther scented mischief in any
And Luther peace with Rome. It was too good to be
true ; and he even hinted that the devil was
somewhere and somehow at work in it.
~ , . So evervthing was left over for settlement
Kverything ' °
left over till at the council which now at length the Pope
of Trent was to convene — the famous Council of Trent.
But meanwhile another power came upon the stage,
which was destined to take the reins out of the hands
of the Italian mediating reformers, to close the door for
reconciliation forever, and to reform what was left of the
Catholic Church on the narrow basis of reaction.
(o) The New Order of the Society of Jesus (1540).
Ignatius Loyola, a young Spanish knight of noble fa-
mily, was born in 149 1, and so was eight years younger
. _ than Luther. He was a soldier in the army
Ignatius Loy-
ola, a Spanish of Spain — that land in which the national
wars against the Moors had kept up chivalry
and the spirit of the old crusaders, in which knights still
fought for the Cross against the ' Infidel,' and whose citi-
ch. v. Reform within the Catholic Chunk, 209
zens more than any others felt the romance of the con-
nexion with the New World.
Loyola was thirty years old, fighting in the Spanish
army against an insurrection in Navarre, secretly aided
by the French, just after the Diet of Worms,
, i-i 1 11 He is wounded
when his leg was shattered by a cannon in 1521
ball. The one hope of the young knight
was such a recovery as would let him return to his sol-
dier's life and pursue his knightly career. He submitted
to two cruel operations in this hope, but alas, in vain.
After racking torture and fever, which brought him near
to the grave, he survived to find his contracted limb still
a bar to his hopes. As he lay upon his couch in pain
and fever, he changed the scheme of his
life. He resolved to become a soldier — a come a general
general-in another army, under a higher s^™iad
king, fighting for the cross. Legends of the of soldicrs-
saints inspired his imagination with dreams still more
romantic than the tales of knight-errantry. In his deli-
rium his fevered eye saw visions of the Virgin, and thus
he thought he received divine commission to pursue his
plan. He would be a true son of the Church, the sworn
enemy of her enemies, be they heretics, Jews, or infidels.
His creed should be the soldier's creed — obedience to
superiors, hard endurance, and dauntless courage. The
holy saints of the legends were his patterns. He prepared
himself for his work, as they did, by fastings and the se-
verest austerities. His food was bread and water and
herbs, his girdle sometimes an iron chain,
sometimes prickly briars, his work humble austerities,
service of the lowest kind, such as dressing
the foulest wounds in the hospitals. Then he dwelt for
a while in a cavern in solitude, and fasted till he saw vi-
sions again, and fancied he had communications with
P
2io Results of the Protestant Revolution. PT. ill.
heaven. And now he had perfected his plan — a soldier's
plan — to found a religious army, perfect in discipline, in
every soldier of which should be absolute
found the devotion to one end, absolute obedience to
VcsusC'r°f ms suPenori with no human ties to hinder
and no objects to divert him from the service
required. It was in fact to be a new monastic order, and
to be called the Society of Jesus.
He must first prepare himself for his generalship by
years of study. He began at a common
To prepare . . .
himself studies school, and then went to the University of
at the Univer- p •
sity of Paris. ■* ails-
The next thing was to get round him a few
others like himself, and so to form the nucleus of his
army. They must be men of power and metal, and ail
the better if of noble blood and high position.
There was a young Spanish noble at the university of
Talis named Francis Xavier. While Loyola
At Paris meets , . , ... .
Francis was studying at the university he came in
Xavier- contact with him. He watched him, read
his mind and character, and then set himself to work to
make his own. Xavier sought fame and applause, ami
just as he got it, Loyola would come in his way with
the solemn question, 'What shall it profit if a man
gain the whole world and lose his own soul?' Loyola
would help him to new triumphs, but as often as they
came would come to him again from Loyola the solemn
question, 'What shall it profit?' At last the proud spirit
of the Spanish noble yielded to the spell. Xavier be-
came a disciple of Loyola; rivalled him in
Xavierbe- . . , '
comes a austerities, and ere long became the mis-
hap e. sionary of the Society, carrying his cross, his
Bible, breviary and wallet to India and the Indian Isles,
and even to Japan and China, till at last he laid down
ch. v. Reform within the Catholic Church. 211
his life after eleven long years of heroic la- And the great
bour, stretched on the sand of the sea-shore Jesuit ™
ary to the In-
of a lonely island in the Chinese seas, with dies, china,
. . .... . r , . . and Japan.
his cross in his hand, tears of holy joy in
his eyes, and uttering the words, ' In Thee have I put
my trust, let me never be confounded.'
Of such stuff were the first Jesuits made — a type of
human nature which, rising up as it did just then, was
of immense import to the future of the Catholic Church.
It was in truth a reaction from the looseness both of
morals and creed which had marked the recent condi-
tion of the Church. These men were pious, _.
1 C haracter <>f
earnest, and devoted to the Church, be- the Jesuits.
cause their minds were cast in a mould
which allowed them still to believe in her pretensions.
They had all the piety, fervour, energy, and boldness of
the Protestant Reformers, but their reform took another
direction. Instead of going back to St. Augustine as
th ir exponent of the Bible, they took St. Francis and
the mediaeval saints as their models, and rested with ab-
solute faith on the authority of the mediaeval Church.
To reform the Catholic Church to mediaeval standards
by the formation of a new monastic order, having for its
corner-stone the absolute surrender of free inquiry and
free thought, and absolute obedience to supreme eccle-
siastical authority — this was the project of „,,
T , x, i Their suc-
Loyola. It was not abortive. Before its cess and
founder died he had succeeded in founding
more than a hundred Jesuit colleges or houses for train-
ing Jesuits, and an immense number of educational es-
tablishments under their influence. He had many thou-
sands of Jesuits in the rank and file of his order. He
had divided Europe, India, Africa, and Brazil into twelve
Jesuit provinces, in each of which he had his Jesuit offi-
212 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
cer, whilst he, their general, residing at Rome, wielded
an influence over the world rivaling, if it did not exceed
in power, that of popes and kings. Its very success was
the cause of its ultimate doom. The nations of Europe,
after the experience of some generations,
Causes of its . l . . ° .
ultimate found it to interfere with their national free-
unpopu an y. ^om> as thev hac[ done the old ecclesiastical
empire of Rome. They ultimately banished the Jesuits
because of their power and because their presence and
their plots endangered the safety of the state. But as
yet the Society of Jesus was young, and had its work
before it. The Order received Papal sanction in 1540.
(e) The Coimcil of Trent {1545 — /jjj).
The Council of Trent was opened in 1545. Cardinal
Contarini, who had been the Pope's confidant in matters
, ,. relating to the Council, died before it assem-
Council of
Trent meets bled. But Cardinal Pole, Contarini the
younger, and others of the mediating party,
were members of the Council. They took the same line
as at Ratisbon, and urged the doctrine of justification by
faith as common Christian ground. But the Jesuits in
_ T . the Council, under the instruction of Loyola,
The Jesuits . J '
prevail over opposed it with all their might. The dispute
ing Refer-" was long and hot, and even led to personal
mers- violence. One holy Father was so angry
that he seized another by the beard. The Jesuits pre-
vailed, and carried the decision of the Council their own
way. Pole, on the plea of ill health, had left the Council,
and the younger Contarini followed his example. It was
clear there was to be no reconciliation. The party of
reaction had gained the day.
No sooner had the party of reaction taken the lead
than Cardinal Caraffa (afterwards Pope Paul IV). ob-
CH. v. Reform within the Catholic Church. 213
tained powers to introduce into Rome the T
T • • • 1 •-, i -, - Inquisition
Inquisition — that terrible tribunal of perse- introduced
cution which in Spain had slain and ban- Card^Tca-*
ished so many Moors, Jews, and heretics ^d'sapor"e
under the sanction of the zeal of Queen Isa- Paul IV.
bella. Persecution began, and some of the members oi
the mediating party were among its first victims.
This was the work of the Council of Trent at its earl^
sessions. Then owing to a disagreement between tho
Pope and Charles V., it was adjourned for Council ad-
some years. Paul III. died, and two sue- ^^der
ceeding popes, before it really got to work Paul IV-
again to any purpose under Paul IV. This was in 1555,
the year in which, after the long struggle between
Charles V. and Germany, the peace of Augsburg was
come to, by which the revolt of the Protestant princes
from Rome was first legally recognized as a thing which
must be.
The Council of Trent had now in its later sessions to
reorganize what was left of the Catholic Church. It
could not, and did not try to undo the re- _ _
Uie Roman
volts. The Jesuits were the ruling power. Catholic
Reaction was the order of the day. Cleri- formed iiT
cal abuses were corrected, and some sort of UJuch more
decency enforced. Provisions were made ri§id than
r 1 1 • r 1 r ever m creed.
for the education of priests and for their de-
votion in future to active duties. But in points of doc-
trine there was reaction instead of concession. The di-
vine authority of the Pope was confirmed. The creed
of the Church was laid down once for all in rigid state-
ments, which henceforth must be swallowed by the faith-
ful. Finally, the Inquisition, imported from Spain, was
extended to other countries, and charged with the sup-
pression of heretical doctrines. In a word, the rule of
214 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
the ecclesiastical empire was strengthened, and the
bonds of the scholastic system tightened; but not for
Christendom — only for those nations who still acknow-
ledged the ecclesiastical supremacy of Rome.
The Church was thus both reformed and narrowed by
the decrees of the Council of Trent. Henceforth it tole-
rated within its fold neither the old diversity of doctrine
on the one hand, nor the old laxity of morals on the
other hand, and henceforth it was by no means coexten-
sive with Western Christendom, as it once had -been.
It is now generally called the ' Roman Catholic Church/
to distinguish it from the ' Catholic Church ' of the Mid-
dle Ages, from which it and so many other churches
have sprung.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FUTURE OF SPAIN AND FRANCE.
(a) The Future of Spain.
Charles V. had inherited the absolute monarchy pre-
pared for him by Ferdinand and Isabella.
The strengthening of the central power was needful to
create a modern nation. But the history of England
has taught us that the central power may be strong with-
out being an absolute monarchy.
The vice in the Spanish system was the
Growth of -i-i i_ i_ ■
absolute mon- attempt to seek national power by subject-
archy in Spain. -ng all ciasses within the nation to the ab-
solute will of the monarch.
This vice was the worm at the root of the greatness of
Spain, and silently wrought the ruin in which she finds
herself to-day.
Philip II., the son and successor of Charles,
was, like his predecessor, an absolute king.
lh. vi. The future of Spain. 215
It was during the period of Spanish supremacy in
Europe that the Council of Trent decreed In close
the absolute ecclesiastical supremacy of the ^ague with
the Papacy.
Pope. It was the Spanish Jesuits who had
brought this about. It was by adopting the Spanish In-
quisition that the ecclesiastical triumph was to be enforced
upon the people. And now Philip II. 's aim,
as we have seen, was to establish both the establish
absolute power of the Spanish throne and PapalSsupre-
the papal supremacy, wherever his rule ex- ^he/0"
tended, by the sword and the Inquisition.
England felt this influence in the days of Queen Mary,
but happily Philip II. 's Spanish Armada failed to con-
quer England under Elizabeth. He tried
2- <■ ^^ ^■ ■ 1 tvt 1 1 1 1 Fatal results
his fatal policy in the Netherlands, and, as of his policy.
we have seen, they revolted, made good their revolt
from both Spain and Rome, and became a free Protest-
ant nation. He tried the same fatal policy in Spain, and
with what result ? The Spaniard of to-day points to the
civil and ecclesiastical despotism of the reign of Philip II.
(from which, unhappily, Spain could not shake herself
free, as the Netherlands did) as the point in her history
when her national life was strangled, her literature began
to lose its power, her commerce to languish. To fatten
an absolute monarchy, and armies of officials, soldiers,
and priests, in course of generations the nation was
ruined. Spain for a while was big on the map. For a
while she maintained her supremacy in Europe, but her
greatness was not the result of her advance on the path
of modern civilization. It was not the result of true
national life — the welding together of all classes into a
compact nation. It rather belonged to the old order of
things, and so was doomed to decay.
216 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill.
[b) The future of France.
Absolute monarchy answered no better for France
than for Spain.
France was a prey during the era to the evils caused
by the constant wars of Francis I. While the two abso-
lute monarchs strove for supremacy in Italy,
sacrificed to their subjects alike suffered. The reckless-
Xmorl^of ness of the ambition of Francis I. showed
the absolute itself in the way in which, while persecuting
monarchy J .
under heresy in France, he was ready to ally him-
self with the Protestants of Germany, or even
the Turks, if need be, to gain his military ends. He
bequeathed his ambition for military glory and supre-
macy to his successors.
France, though a Catholic power, fought on the Pro-
testant side in the Thirty Years' War, and one result of
it was that the supremacy of Spain ended and that of
France began. But French, no less than Spanish su-
premacy, was the growth of absolute monarchy, contrary
to the true interests of the French nation. It was gradu-
ally ripening the seeds which were already sown, and
which bore fruit in the great Revolution of 1789, and in
the alternate republics and despotisms under
which her which France has since suffered so much,
monarchy The want of common feeling and interest
was to between the citizens of the towns and pea-
t ranee. "
sants of the rural districts which began so
early in French history still continues to perplex her ru-
lers, and so does the lust for military glory and supre-
macy in Europe which also is an old inheritance of the
French people.
The way in which the Protestant revolution was met
in France also left scars upon the nation which may be
traced to-day. Under Francis I., Calvinism spread in
ch. vl The future of France. 2-7
France among the nobility, whose order had been
humbled to make way for the absolute mon- Struggle
archy. This gave rise in the next era to re- Huguenots
ligious wars, in which some of the Protes- m *rance-
tant nobility headed a rebellion against the Catholic
throne. These civil wars lasted forty years, and cost
the lives, it is said, of more than a million Frenchmen.
In France the persecution of heresy was political as
well as religious. Political ambition and intrigue, as
well as religious bigotry, prompted it, and stained the
pages of French history with crimes unique in their
blackness.
The massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572 was the
diabolical work of the queen, Catherine de' Massacre of
Medici, to maintain her political power, ^mew^n0"
She had coquetted with the Huguenots ^t2-
when it served her purpose. She tried to exterminate
them by the massacre of 20,000 — some say 100,000 — in
one fatal night. The Edict of Nantes in
& Toleration
1598 ended the civil wars and granted a for a time
. ... . under the
respite from persecution, but its revocation Edict of
in 1685 resulted in the banishment cf the Nantes-
Huguenots from France. Some of them itsrevoca-
0 tion in 1005,
came to Protestant England, and brought and the ba-
, , . , r^-i nishment of
with them their silk and their looms. 1 hus the Hu-
France by her intolerance lost one arm of J^°J who
her national industry and an important ele- England.
ment from her national character. The want of cohe-
sion and unity of interest between various classes in
France was increased by the banishment of the Hugue-
nots. There is even now a middle term wanting — a
missing link — between her religious and her republican
elements. The Puritans— the religious republicans-
were that middle term in England.
Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
CHAPTER VII.
general results of the era of the protestant
Devolution.
{a) On the Growth of National Life.
We have now traced the course of the Protestant revo-
t „ _ lution, and marked both its direct results
Influence of
the Protest- upon those nations which revolted from
tion on na- Rome, and also its indirect results upon
tional life. Rome herself and those nations which re-
mained in allegiance to her ecclesiastical empire.
The revolution was obviously only partially success-
Whereitsuc- mL Where it succeeded it produced re-
ceeded. form — the Protestant nations had gained
one substantial step towards independent national life
and towards the blending of all classes within them
into one community.
Where it failed, it produced, as every unsuccessful
Where it revolution does, reaction. The Catholic na-
failed. tions seemed to gain in the outward signs
of strength by the alliance which resulted between the
civil and ecclesiastical powers within them. But it was
an alliance intended to strengthen the absolute power
of the Crown and of the ecclesiastical empire, and there-
by all the more to enthrall the people. Henceforth,
both in France and in Spain, the nation was more than
ever enthralled under the double despotism of Crown
and Church. The Inquisition may be taken as the sym-
bol of the one kind of despotism, and the French Bas-
tille of the other. The twe despotisms acting together
tended, as we have seen, to destroy national life, to in-
crease the separation of classes and prevent their being
welded together by common interests into one commit-
ch. vii. Results of the Era. 219
nity. It postponed their progress on the path of modern
civilization and ended in a series of alternate revolu-
tions and reactions, out of which it is hard to see a final
escape. So hard is it for nations to cast off the fruit,
however bitter, of seeds sown even centuries ago !
Where it partially failed and partially succeeded, as in
Switzerland and Germany, we have seen that it resulted
in civil wars and in the postponement of the- where it
growth of their national life almost to our SSd^paSly*1
own times. In Switzerland the people were succeeded.
already free, but in Germany, where serfdom still pre-
vailed, the emancipation of the peasantry was postponed
till the beginning of the nineteenth century.
(b) On the Relations of Nations to each other.
The Protestant struggle apparently did little or nothing
to secure progress in civilization in the dealings between
nations. The events of the era show that the small im-
notion of universal empire which had ^^dealin s"
marked the old order of things was not yet between na-
fully given up. The aim after extension of
empire which went along with it we have noticed
throughout. The struggle between the two absolute
monarchies of Spain and France for supremacy in Chris-
tendom, the efforts of the princes of the House of Haps-
burg to unite as many countries as they could under
their rule, the designs that both France and Spain had
upon Italy, the revived claims of Henry VIII. to the old
English possessions in France — in all this there was little
sign of progress from the old to the new order of things.
Although the Oxford reformers were faithful in enjoining
upon princes an international policy based The Oxford
upon the golden rule, and having for its ob- n^ifetened
ject not the aggrandizement of the prince to in thls-
220
Results of the Protestant Revolution, ft, ill.
but the weal of the nation, the popes and princes still
preferred to follow the maxims of "the Prince" of
Machiavelli, rather than those of the " Christian Prince"
of Erasmus. They still, as Erasmus said, treated the
people too much as " cattle in the market."
Nor was the immediate result of the Protestant revo-
lution any cessation from international strife. For the
next hundred years there was almost incessant strife
between Catholic and Protestant powers.
Though, however, Henry VIII. himself hankered
But Hen again and again after the realization of the
VIII. was empty title of King of France ; yet practically
English king we may say that Henry VIII. 's dreams were
recov^dn^ the last in which English monarchs have
France. indulged on that subject.
And though the attempts to urge sounder views on
international matters did not succeed in this era, yet they
And Hugo were not made wholly in vain. Before the
Grotius was century was out was born Hugo Grotius, the
born before J ° .
the century father of the present system of international
law, who was well acquainted with the works
of Erasmus, and like him rejected Machiavellian prin-
ciples and sought to base the law of nations upon the
golden rule.
(c) Influc7ice on the Growth of National Languages and
Literature.
In no point was the effect of tne Protestant struggle
more clearly marked than in the stride it gave, as it were
all at once, to the growth of national languages and
literature.
In Germany we noticed how Luther and Hutten ap-
pealed to the people as well as to the learned; how, first
writing in Latin for scholars, they soon found it needful
uh. vii. Results of the Era. 221
to write in German for the people ; how Luther intro-
duced wood-cuts to make his appeals to the popular ear
still more vivid and telling. All this promoted the
growth of a national popular literature. This turning
from Latin to German was in fact throwing Luther's
off in one point the yoke of the scholastic h'-'nin^fix
system, and was in itself a great step in ad- thc character
vance for the nation to have taken. The man Ian-
crowning gift of Luther to the German peo- guage-
pie was in fact his German Bible and his German hymns.
The earnest vigorous German in which they are written
fixed the future style of the language. The German
spoken to-day is the German of Luther's Bible and
hymns. They have been better known by the German
people than any other literature, and so have done more
than perhaps anything else to form the German lan-
guage, and with it in no small degree the national
character.
It was so in some measure in France. Calvin did not
gain so great a hold on the French nation
as Luther did on the German, but still his {^"^ of
French Writings did very much the same writings on the
0 J , French lan-
thing for the Frenca language that Luther s guage.
Bible did for the German.
In England, too, the same thing is to be marked. The
fact that the religious controversies of the times were
carried on by books and pamphlets, not in
T . , „ ,. , . . Influence of
Latin but in English, gave a stimulus to Tindal'sNew
English literature, and prepared the way for ih?Eng!?h0n
the succeeding generations which were to version of the
to to _ Bible, and so
give England her Shakespeare and her Mil- upon the Eng-
• lish language.
ton. Nor can it be forgotten that the noble
English version of the Bible has done as much as other
versions in other countries to fix the character of mo-
222 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
dern English. The simplicity, terseness, and power of
the English version, to which the taste of England, after
frequent wanderings, again and again returns as to its
best classical model, we owe, and this should not be
forgotten, to the poor, persecuted, but noble-minded
English reformer, William Tindal, who, in his English
New Testament, set a type which others in completing
the translation of the whole Bible loyally followed.
(d) Effect in Stimulating National Education.
The same movement which promoted so much the
growth of national language and literature, also did much
to throw open the gates of knowledge to the people by
fostering education and schools.
Savonarola founded schools in Florence. Colet set a
noble example in England, and the next generation fol-
lowed it by establishing the grammar-schools
ffby slvont which so often bear the name of King Ed-
roia, Colet. and ward yi. Luther and the Protestant Ger-
others, Luther,
Calvin, Knox, man states established common schools.
the Pilgrim .-ti.-i.-ii i • ' r~- j
Fathers, and Calvin did the same thing in Geneva, and
Jesuits. Calvin's disciple, John Knox, in Scotland.
Finally, the Pilgrim Fathers carried the same
zeal for education to their colonies in New England.
Even the Jesuits made a great point of education, and
became noted wherever they went for their educational
establishments. So that both in Catholic and Protestant
countries a great stimulus was given to popular education
during the era, while the fact that at least some of the
property of the dissolved monasteries was diverted to
educational purposes in connexion with the Universities
and otherwise, gave a somewhat similar stimulus also to
higher education.
ch. vii. Results of the Era. 223
{/) Influence on Domestic Life.
There are few things, if any, more important to the
steady growth of a free nation than the maintenance of
domestic virtues and the sanctities of family life.
The domestic instincts, more than any others, were the
first germs of national life. In Teutonic nations espe-
cially the powerful ties of family life, widen- Political im-
ing in their sphere extended from the family If^estic °'
to the tribe, from the tribe to the nation, in- in-
troducing law and order and peaceful relations within
the sphere embraced by them.
Now the domestic virtues of nations had
Danger to it
been in great danger of decay, and no from the ex-
doubt had suffered enormously through the country of
influence of so large a body of clergy, monks, j^ cc^es>
and nuns in a forced state of celibacy.
This system sapped the foundations of domestic life
by holding up the married state as lower in virtue than
that of celibacy, by cutting off so large a number of
people from the natural influences of home-life, and still
further by promoting in a terrible degree immorality and
crime.
The dissolution of the monasteries ana .
Dissolution
permission of the marriage of the parochial of monaste-
. . • 1 ■ ries and per-
clergy were in themselves steps gained in mission to
civilization of great importance in a moral ^rJy^Sep
and political, as well as in a religious point in civilization.
of view.
{/) Influence on Popular Religion.
In yet another way did the Protestant revolution suc-
ceed in promoting national life and the aims of Christian
civilization.
:24 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
It made religion less a thing of the clergy and more a
thing of the people. It gave the people religious ser-
vices in their own languages instead of in
The Protes- , -r. , ■
tantmove- an unknown tongue. By placing within
larized re"" their reach the Christian Scriptures in their
ligion, own language it led them to think for them-
selves, and to be directly influenced by Christianity as
taught by its founder and apostles. It tended to
strengthen individual conviction and conscience, and so
ultimately it led, though with many drawbacks, to fur-
ther steps being gained towards freedom of thought.
It is well to mark also that this bringing of religion
nearer home to the individual conscience of the masses
of the people, and cultivation of individual
and ln-ought
it into har- responsibility rather than reliance on a
tni'l.hris- priesthood or a church, tended to bring it
modern""1 more into harmony, not only with the ten-
civilization, dencies of modern civilization but also with
the essential character of Christianity itself, as conceived
by its founder and his apostles, and so to make it once
more the great civilizing influence which from the rirst
it was intended to be.
Christianity was without doubt the power which more
than anything else produced the great movement of the
era, and turned the civilization of the future
civilization into the course we have described. The
chief charac- mere humanists had not succeeded in im-
ChrisOanit pressing the semi-pagan stamp of their phi-
losophy upon it. Had they done so the
principle of the old Roman civilization — the good of the
few at the expense of the many — might have marked
the civilization of the future as it had done that of the
past. But we have seen it was the men of deepest
Christian convictions — the religious reformers — who sue-
ch. VII. Results of the Era. 225
ceeded in giving their impress to the era. It is thus to
Christianity more than to anything else that we owe the
direction given in the era to modern civilization, its char-
acteristic aim to attain the highest good for the whole
community.
[g) Want of Progress in Toleration.
There was one thing especially in which there seemed
to be reaction rather than progress during the era, viz. in
toleration.
We said that one great work of the era was to set
men's minds free from ecclesiastical and scholastic thral-
dom— to set both science and religion free, for without
this freedom there could be no real progress in civiliza-
tion.
In fact, an immense number of minds had got free
from that particular ecclesiastical and scholastic thral-
dom against which they had rebelled in be- „,
• t> a ■% 1 • Change from
coming Protestant. And this in itself was Catholic to
no small result. But what has already been creeds was
said must have made it clear that the Pro- chanse. [rom
one rigid
testant reformers, in adopting the theology scholastic
<-. • • • • • creed to
of St. Augustine, and insisting upon their another
followers adopting the new Protestant equa y ngl '
creeds, did but appeal from the scholastic standards of
their day to others just as rigid.
The Oxford Reformers had aimed at leaving people
open to form their own honest judgment on various
points of theology and practice, according „ „
v &; r » & Sma]1 connex.
to their own consciences, and urged that ion hetween
people with different opinions and practice domof^Loiwht
might be members of the same Christian ?"d conceding
o it to others.
Church, have charity one towards another,
and agree to differ without quarrelling. But how hard a
0
226 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
thing it was to get people to do this we see from the case
of Sir Thomas More himself, who, though he had advo-
cated toleration in his ' Utopia, yet afterwards, seeing
the anarchy Protestantism had led to on the Continent,
and fearing its spreading to England, became himself a
persecutor. We must not be surprised after this that the
Protestant Reformers failed also in the same respect. It
is strange to see how little connexion there seems to be
between claiming freedom of thought and conceding it
to others.
Lutherans persecuted Catholics as well as Catholics
Protestants ; and, worse still, they persecuted their fel-
low-Protestants who followed Zwingle and Calvin rathei
than Luther. So Calvin put Servetus to death, and ex-
So persecution ercised a thoroughly intolerant rule in
the persecuted Geneva. So the English Government, after
tolerant. ftie revoit from Rome, persecuted Protes-
tants, and soon after ordered by statute practices which
a few years before they had condemned. So the Catho-
lic Government of Queen Mary shed the blood of Pro-
testants again. So the English Protestant Church of
after generations persecuted the Puritans. So finally,
the Puritans, fleeing from persecution to New England,
put people to death for no other crime than that they
honestly preached doctrines differing from their own !
Looking at these facts, one would certainly say that the
Protestant struggle had not made men more tolerant !
And yet, in spite of this temporary failure, toleration
was a distant fruit of the great movement we have
traced. In this era its first seeds were
Yet toleration • , . ,
was after all sown. Sir Thomas Mores 'Utopia was
mate results of perhaps the first clear statement of the doc-
the Protestant trme 0f toleration. The works of Erasmus
revolution.
did something, probably more than is
ch. vii. Results of the Era. 227
known, to prepare the minds of men for its ultimate
adoption. The strength of conscientious conviction
which Protestantism created made men claim freedom
as a right, and after all, the men who were fighting the
battle of toleration with most effect, were the men whose
strength of conscientious conviction made them endure
persecution rather than surrender their freedom of con-
science, even though they themselves, under other cir-
cumstances, might have been persecutors.
(h) The Causes why the Success of the Era was so partial.
We might, in view simply of its immediate results —
the wars and bloodshed, and anarchy, persecutions, and
heartburnings which came out of it — be inclined to re-
gard the failures of the era of the Protestant revolution
as greater than the good we owe to it.
This would be false. It would be to forget that pro-
gress in civilization is of necessity like that „
Progress
of the advancing tide, made up of ebbs and must be
flows. It is well also to note clearly the gra
cause of the failures, and especially of those of which we
have just been speaking.
Let us ask ourselves why did not the human mind in
this era free itself from its trammels, claim its tiv.e
freedom, and concede it to everyone? Limited by
„_, • ,1 , -. • -li t-u the range of
The answer is, that it was impossible. 1 he men-s know.
range of knowledge was too narrow. Men's led^e-
minds could not take a broader view of things than the
horizon of their knowledge let them.
Let us try to realize what were the bounds of their
knowledge in some directions.
They knew that the earth is a globe, and in their own
time Magellan, for the first time, had sailed round it.
228 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
But they thought the earth was in the centre
Limited view . . . „ , , ,
oftheuni- of the universe, and that all the heavenly
bodies move round it every twenty-four
hours. The notion that it was the earth that moved they
The earth thought to be absurd. We should see the
tobe^the* motion, they said. At the rate it would
centre. have to move, it would leave the clouds be-
hind it as it went, and towers and church steeples
would be thrown down by the violence of so rapid a
motion !
So the earth stands still, they maintained in the centre
of the universe. The heavenly bodies were supposed
The crystal- to r°tate on what were called crystalline
line spheres. spheres. The first was the sphere of the
moon — all things confined within it were called sublunary
things. They were supposed by some to be under such
pressure as made the heaviest things all tend towards
the centre, while the lightest things tended upwards. It
was sometimes said that it was in the nature of fire and
air to rise, while it was the nature of water and earth to
fall towards the centre. In rough ways like these they
tried to account for the facts which are now attributed to
the force of gravitation. The spheres beyond the moon
were called celestial spheres. First, they thought, came
those of Mercury, Venus, and the Sun, then in order
those of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn ; then that of the fixed
stars, and, outside all, a ninth sphere, called primiwi
7)iobile, which gave motion to all the others. They be-
Heaven lieved further, in a vague way, that heaven
beyond. came beyond. Theologians speculated
upon what sort of a sphere that of heaven must be, and
Erasmus, in his ' Praise of Folly,' laughed at their
'creating new spheres at pleasure, this the largest and
most beautiful being added that, forsooth, happy spirits
ch. vii. Results of the Era. 229
might have room enough to take a walk, to spread their
feasts, or play at ball.'
Such was the universe of spheres, one within the
other, which they thought all moved round the earth in
the centre every twenty-four hours. It was The motions
a small thing altogether, compared with the re^arded^5
vastly wider and grander universe, a little Wlthawe»
bit of which modern science has revealed to us, but it
was a marvellous universe still, and its mysteries filled
them with awe when they thought of it.
When asked questions about it, some wise men like
Erasmus answered, ' God only knows.' But more super-
stitious minds gave far different answers. and in
Luther, who saw the action of the Devil in lar supersti-
tion referred
every accident which befell him, stood to angels.
aghast at the magic motions of the celestial spheres, as
' no doubt done by some angel.' Many wise
Astrology.
men still believed in astrology. They could
not bring themselves to believe that the stars and planets,
looking down upon our world, had not some magic
meaning. When comets came, they saw in them omi-
nous presages of coming events. Pico and Ficino,
Colet, Erasmus, and More had all tried to Laughed at
laugh people out of belief in astrology, by some but
& v l bJ believed in
Luther, too, laughed at it, but Melanchthon by others.
still held on to the old belief in spite of Luther's argu-
ments and jests. How can there be anything in astro-
logy, Luther used to say to him, since Jacob and Esau
were born under the same star !
The same kind of superstition which attributed the
motions of the planets to angels, and magic influence on
the affairs of men to the stars, made men
Till- • • 1 • Belief in
the more readily believe in visions and in- visions and
, . . . inspirations
spirations, such as we have seen m the case
?3° Results of the Protestant Revolution. PT. III.
of the wilder reformers from Savonarola down to Mun-
zer and Loyola. Luther himself was remarkably free
from these things — he never claimed either visions or in-
spirations, as the wilder prophets did ; but, as an in-
stance of how superstitious even he was, it may be men-
tioned that he and Melanchthon devoutly believed that
a monster had been found in the Tiber, with
and in prodi-
gies. the head of an ass, the body of a man, and
the claws of a bird. After searching their Bibles to find
out what the prodigy meant, they concluded that it was
one of the signs and wonders which were to precede
the fall of the papacy, and published a pamphlet about
it.
Luther again, and probably everybody else, believed
in witchcraft. Hundreds and thousands of poor wretches
were burned for the supposed crime of hav-
Universal . L
belief in ing sold themselves to the powers of evil,
and having held communion with evil
spirits. And stranger still is it that the number of witches
„r. , burned was rapidly on the increase. There
Witches as .
well as here- were more witches burned in the 16th cen-
tics burned. , . . .
tury than in any previous one, and more
still in the next.
Heresy and witchcraft were looked upon as nearly
allied, and probably the zeal against both grew together.
Nor was the cruel death allotted to these supposed crimes
out of proportion to that* of others. Thousands and
thousands of people were hung in England for no other
crime but that of vagrancy and 'sturdy begging.' The
system of criminal law was everywhere
criminal law brutal. Soon after the Peasants' War, the
Prince Bishop of Bamberg published a
popular criminal law book for the benefit of his subjects
- — his poor crushed peasantry among others — in which
ch. vii. Results of the Era. 231
were inserted wood-cuts of thumb-screws, the rack, the
gallows, the stake, pincers for pulling out the tongue,
men with their eyes put out or their heads cut off, or
mangled on the wheel, or suspended by the arms with
weights hung on their feet, and so on, and then, to add
the terrors of another world (as if these humanly in-
flicted tortures were not enough), there was a blasphe-
mous picture representing the day of judgment, and the
hobgoblins carrying off their victims to hell. The Prince
Bishop, we may suppose, had learned a lesson from
Luther, and produced, as he thought, a good book for
the laity, meant, not like Luther's, to dispel men's fears
of the Pope, but to frighten his poor subjects into sub-
mission to his episcopal and princely authority. This
may be taken as an example both of the way in which
civil and ecclesiastical power were sometimes blended
together, and of the brutality of the times.
Such an age was not ready for wider views. Further
knowledge of the laws of nature must come ^
, . , . . , , , The age not
before popular superstitions could be re- prepared for
moved, and until this was done it would be
in vain to look for much progress in toleration and free-
dom of thought.
(z) Beginning of Progress in Scientific Inquiry.
Nevertheless the era of which we have spoken was
the beginning of the era of freedom. From it dated a
great awaking of human thought. Its great „ . .
u- 1 A' U A A Beginning of
geographical discoverers had opened new scientific in-
fields for scientific inquiry. Not only had qmry-
navigators been round the world, but they had seen as
it were the rest of the sky. They had seen the south
polestar and the Southern Cross in their voyages round
the Cape of Good Hope. Thus was not only their
232 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
geographical but also their astronomical knowledge
widened.
A beginning of truer and wider views of the universe
was almost a natural consequence, but to attain to it
scholastic and even ecclesiastical bonds had to be
loosened. A scientific Luther was wanted to burst
through them, but the age did not produce such a man.
Nevertheless it did produce one who silently lived and
worked timidly to demonstrate that the motions of the
planets and the moon can only be fully accounted for on
the hypothesis that the sun and not the earth is the cen-
tre of the solar system, that the moon is a satellite of
the earth, and that the sphere of the fixed stars is at an
immense distance from the farthest of the planetary
spheres. Our present theory of the solar system is still
sometimes called after his name, Copertiiean, though it
is far more truly called after Newton.
Nicolas Copernicus died two years before Luther.
His story is that of a brave life, and one which may
well be set by the side of that of other
Nicolas Co-
pemicus. great men of the era. Educated at the
University of Cracow, in Poland, he after-
wards proceeded to Rome, and studied under the best
astronomer of the day. Then he spent a long life in
working out his grand scientific problem from careful
observations and according to the best lights he could
get. He was loyal to the Church. He did not want to
be a heretic, and yet the great truth he had to tell was
contrary to the teaching of the Church. For thirty-six
years — all the time the Protestant struggle was raging — ■
he was working at the immortal book in which his ob-
servations and discoveries were embodied, but he did
not venture to publish it till under Paul III. there was a
lull in the ecclesiastical storm. He was then an old man,
ch. vin. Economic Results of the Era. 233
in broken health; his book was in the
1-11 i • j , i His greai work
printer s hands when he was on his death- not pubiished
bed. All he cared for now was to see it gj hdee Jha.sbe°dn
safe in print before he died. He waited at
death's door day after day. At last the printer's mes-
senger came with the printed book. He received it with
tears in his eyes, composed himself and died. This
was in 1543, and he was seventy years old. He was fol-
lowed by other scientific discoverers — Tycho Brahe,
Kepler, and Galileo. Thus the brave life of Copernicus
may be taken as marking the epoch when scientific
thought and inquiry began to free itself from theologi-
cal trammels and to seek to discover the laws of nature
by a simple, childlike, and careful observation of facts.
But necessarily many generations must pass away before
men became used to scientific modes of research and of
thought.
CHAPTER VIII.
ECONOMIC RESULTS OF THE ERA.
Amongst the powers which belonged to the old order
of things, and which were going out, the feudal system
was mentioned as silently giving way under RegjJta of ^
the combined influence of the growth of the era on what re-
n . j r rnained of the
central power in the modern nations and ot feudal system,
commerce.
The results of the era in hastening the dissolution of
the feudal system require a few words of further expla-
nation.
In Germany, we have seen, serfdom — the essential of
which, it will be remembered, was services of forced
234 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. ill.
, ~ personal labor in return for occupation of
In Germany * r
personal ser- land — remained unchanged, except for the
vices con- c . _, , ,__ , ,
tinued. worse, aiter the Peasants War, and lasted
on till the beginning of the present cen-
tury.
In France serfdom was a thing of the past, but there
In France remained numberless feudal rents and pay-
muf'lr'mcnts ments made chiefly in kind (i. e. in produce
chiefly in kind of the land) which the peasantry went on
continued till . ' , _ ' , . '
1798. paying till the French Revolution of 1798.
In England serfdom was gone, but had left behind it
fixed nuts in money instead of the old feudal payments
,' , , in services or in kind. These rents were
In hngland
feudal rents originally nearly equal to the annual value
were chiefly r i i i t-.
in fixed money of the land. But an economic cause came
payments. intQ ^Ry during the era which, while it did
not help the German peasant nor the French peasant who
ra. . , paid his rent in kind, lessened the burden of
Effect of the r '
discovery of the English peasant's rent so much as to
the silver . . . . . in- i r
mines in the change his position gradually into that of an
New World. absolute Qwner<
This economic cause was the discovery of the silver
and gold mines in the New World.
It made silver more plentiful, and therefore cheaper in
proportion to other things, such as corn and land. In
other words, it increased the price in pence and shillings
Th f 11 ' h °f almost everything. A penny or a shilling
value of money would not buy so much corn after as before
caused a great . . , ,
rise in prices, the new mines were discovered ; and as in
England Tudor monarchs at the same time
for their own purposes, lessened the weight of silver in
the penny and shilling by about one-third, the effect of
the increased plenty of silver was made all the greater;
6.y, would buy a quarter of wheat at the beginning of the
CH. vin. Economic Results of the Era. 235
century, it took 385. 6d. to buy a quarter of wheat at the
end of it. The annual value of land was about \d. per
acre at the beginning of the century, 30^. at the end of it.
The German peasant was not helped by this, for he
had to work just as many hours a day for his feudal
landlord at the end as at the beginning of ...
0 ° This did not
the century. lessen the Ger-
_, _ , - . . j . man peasant's
The French peasant, so far as he paid in services.
produce, was not helped by it, because the Nor the
price of his produce had increased as fast as French Pea-
r * . sant s rents in
the value of the land, and his rent remained produce.
the same burden as before.
But the English peasant, who in the year 1500
paid 4//. an acre fixed rent for his land, which was then
worth about 4^. an acre in the market, Butltwduced
found himself in 1600, if he still held on to the burden of
,-ii-n • ^ j i_-i lhc English
his land, still paying only \d. an acre, while peasants' rents
his land was worth in the market six, seven, Sthor^tfcof
or eight times as much as that. His burden Ae.valw oJ
<=> their land.
of rent was reduced to ^th or Jth of what it This would
have made
USed tO be. them peasant
Had the English peasantry held on to K^held
their land as the German and French pea- on "jf> thcir
1 land. But their
sants did, they would thus have grown into tendency was
„ .to leave their
peasant proprietors, paying very small nomi- ia„d and be-
nal rents for their land. But other economic %™^urcrs
causes were at work, tending to loosen them
from their little holdings and make them labourers for
wages. The growth of commerce and manufactures at-
tracted them to the towns, the large farms of men with
capital more and more took the place of the little peasant
holdings, and thus began the present state of things in
which England differs so much from other countries.
There were perhaps, in the year 1500, about half a
236 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt. hi.
million families in England living by the land, and most
were, or had been, farming some little bit of
pliant pro™ land for themselves. Perhaps there were not
prietorship so mailv as a quarter of a million families
of land or ....
of looms to earning their living by trade or manufactures
labour for . . . , . , .
wages, in the towns, and most of them owning their
own workshops or looms.
The half million agricultural families have now grown
into about a million. These no longer are occupiers of
land, but are mostly working for wages for a few hun-
dred thousand farmers. But in the meantime the two
or three hundred thousand families living by trade and
manufactures have increased to 3,000,000, and these
again, as a general rule, like their agricultural brethren,
have become workers for wages, and no longer are
owners of their own workshops and looms.
We probably owe this to the growth of capital and
commercial enterprise, stimulated by the increased profit
which comes from division of labour, and
resuf/ofthe doing things on a large scale by machinery
growth of rather than on a small scale as of old by
commerce
and capital, hand labour. But what we have to mark
of machinery, here is that the beginnings of these great
changes were already at work in the era of
which we have been speaking, and that in their course
the last remains of the old feudal system have been demo-
lished in England. We only see in England now traces
of a sort of mock-feudalism in the deer
1 hese changes .
had begun forests and game preserves, and antiquated
century, and forms and customs still clinging to the laws
pteted°he- °^ land tenure. These things are survivals
silent down- 0f a SyStem which once had life, but which
fall of the •*
feudal system belonged to the old order of things. In the
in ngan ^^ century it was already fast dying out
ch. viii. Conclusion. 237
to make way for commercial enterprise and all that
belongs to the new order of things — an order of things
which has multiplied by six or seven the population of
England, and peopled with about an equal additional
number of Englishmen those great colonies for which
the maritime enterprise of the 16th century first opened
the way.
CONCLUSION.
In the introductory chapter we said that the passage
from the old decaying form of civilization to the new,
better, and stronger one, involved a change which must
needs take place slowly and by degrees ; but that in the
era under review was to be the crisis of the change — the
final struggle between the two forces.
We have now traced the main lines of the history of
this crisis, and tried to point out its connexion with the
future as well as with the past. We have seen that
the Protestant revolution was but one wave
of the advancing tide of modern civilization. tant revolu-"
It was a great revolutionary wave, the on- begiiSngof
ward swell of which, beginning with the a sreat rev°-
. lutionary
refusal of reform at the Diet of Worms, pro- wave which
duced the Peasants' War and the Sack of French
Rome, swept on through the revolt of the tfe^£tion
Netherlands, the Thirty Years' War, the
Puritan Revolution in England under Oliver Cromwell,
the formation of the great independent American re-
public, until it came to a head and broke in all the
terrors of the French Revolution.
It is impossible not to see in the course of the events
of this remarkable period an onward movement as
238 Results of the Protestant Revolution, pt.
ITT.
irresistible and certain in its ultimate pro-
gress as that of the geological changes which
have passed over the physical world.
It is in vain to speculate upon what might
have been the result of the concession of
broad measures of reform everywhere (as in
England) whilst yet there was time ; but in
view of the bloodshed and misery which, humanly
speaking, might have been spared, who can fail to be
impressed with the terrible responsibility, in
the eye of history, resting upon those by
whom in the 16th century, at the time of the
crisis, the reform was refused ? They were
utterly powerless, indeed, to stop the ultimate
flow of the tide, but they had the terrible
power to turn, what might otherwise have
been a steady and peaceful stream, into, a turbulent and
devastating flood. They had the terrible power, and
they used it, to involve their own and ten succeeding
generations in the turmoils of revolution.
The move-
ment was
inevitable,
and might
have been
peacefully-
met and
aided by-
timely re-
forms.
But the
refusal of
reform at the
time of the
crisis in-
volved ten
generations
in the
turmoils of
revolution.
NOTES ON BOOKS IN ENGLISH RELATING
TO THE REFORMATION.
The term " Reformation" is used by historical writers
in two meanings. It quite frequently denotes the reli-
gious movement, which began under the auspices of
Luther, Calvin, Cranmer and other leaders, and in-
volved an emancipation from the rule of the Papacy,
and an important change in the interpretation of the
Gospel, as well as in the rites of Christian worship.
The Reformation, as thus regarded, is an exclusively
religious and ecclesiastical revolution. As such, it
forms a portion of the history of Christianity and the
Church. At the same time, Protestantism, as a religious
system, was partly dependent for its origin on circum-
stances which properly fall within the province of secu-
lar history ; and the progress of Protestantism, and of
the conflict with the Papacy, is inextricably connected
with the general course of European affairs. Hence,
the general condition of society at the opening of the
sixteenth century, the causes other than religious which
prepared for the outbreaking of the great Protest against
Rome, and the events of political history which link
themselves to the religious Reform, must fall under the
notice of a historian who takes a comprehensive view
of his subject.
But the term "Reformation" is frequently used with
more latitude as a convenient designation for the open-
ing era of modern history, — the history of the post-
mediaeval times. While the religious reform was one
21Q
240 Notes on Books in English
leading and defining characteristic of the new era, it
was not the sole peculiarity that distinguished it. On
the contrary, various and complex elements, appear in
the modern as distinguished from the mediaeval period.
Events like the growth of monarchy, the spread of Com-
merce, the new birth of Art, the Revival of Learning, are
essential features in that form of society which gradually
arose, and followed upon the Middle Ages. The histo-
rian who undertakes to describe the era as a whole must
give its proper place to each of these new elements.
He must trace each to its sources, and form an estimate
of the reciprocal influence and collective effect of each
of these features of society as it emerged from the
mediaeval condition. But he will, under such a plan,
still be obliged to give a central place to the religious
movement, both in the centuries which preceded Luther,
and in the age contemporaneous with him. The Pro-
testant religion cannot be considered as an incident;
it must be treated as a vital, as the most commanding,
fact in the new epoch. So that whether the Reforma-
tion is taken in the more special sense to which we first
adverted, or in the more comprehensive meaning, the
same facts come under the survey of the historian. The
difference is chiefly in the point of view from which
these facts are regarded, which will of course determine
their grouping. As regards the mediaeval period, secu-
lar history and ecclesiastical history are inseparable.
Neither can be studied apart from the other. If a divi-
sion is more possible as relates to the modern era, still
even here, one class of phenomena are so closely asso-
ciated with another, that ecclesiastical history cannot be
understood apart from secular, nor can secular history
be adequately studied apart from ecclesiastical. The
life of nations, as of men, is one.
Relating to the Reformation. 241
In the following list of some of the most useful works
to be found in English on the Reformation, general
literary works, as well as distinctively ecclesiastical wri-
ters, are included.
I. The Period before Luther. On Wickliffe, the Re-
forming Councils, and the beginnings of the Revival of
Learning, the last two (viith and viiith) volumes of Mil-
man's Latin Christianity are valuable. The fifth vol-
ume of the same work describes the Waldenses and
other sects, of an earlier date. Ullmann's Reformers
before the Reformation (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1855) gives
an excellent account of the theological and religious
forerunners of Luther, especially in Germany. Gillett's
Life and Times of John Huss (2 vols., 1871) is a reada-
ble narrative of the career of the Bohemian Reformer.
Villari's Life of Savonarola is a thorough biography (2
vols., 1873). With it may be read George Eliot's (Mrs.
Lewes's) Roinola. The most recent Life of Erasmus is
by Drummond (2 vols., 1873). Milman's Article on
Erasmus ( Quart. Rev., No. ccxi., and in his collected
Essays) is an elaborate and instructive discussion. Jor-
tin's Life of Erasmus is a learned, but at the same time,
an interesting biography, abounding in extracts from
the writings of Erasmus. Upon Erasmus and his asso-
ciates, the friends of the New Learning, in England, we
have Seebohm's The Oxford Reformers of 149& (Lon-
don, 1869). The literature of the age prior to Luther is
described in the work of Hallam, Introdicction to the Lit.
of Europe in the ijth, 16th, and 17th centuries (3 vols.,
1855-56).
II. General Works upon the Reformation. Robert-
son's History of Charles V. Edited by W. H. Prescott,
with supplement on the Cloister Life of the Emperor (3
vols., 1856). Robertson prefixes to his work an Essay
Q
242 Notes on Books in English
on the state of Europe at the accession of Charles.
Prescott's History of the Reig?i of Ferdinand and Isa*
bella, exhibits the causes which gave its peculiar tone to
Spanish Catholicism, prior to the sixteenth century.
Ranke, History of the Popes of Rome during the six-
teenth and seventeenth ce?ituries. Translated by Sarah
Austin, (3 vols., 1867). This is a work of the highest
value. Hausser, The Period of the Reformation, 1 5 17-
1648. Translated from the German by Mrs. G. Sturges
(New York, 1874) is a very able series of historical lec-
tures, and is especially valuable for the political side of
the history of this period. Guizot's Lectures on the His-
tory of Civilization contain two chapters on the Re-
formation and its consequences. D'Aubigne's History
of the Reformation is a full, detailed narrative, in a viva-
cious style, by a warm advocate of Protestantism. On
the Catholic side is Spaulding's History of the Reforma-
tion (Baltimore, 1866). Balmes, Protesta7itism and Cath-
olicity co?npared in their effects on Civilization : trans-
lated from the Spanish (1 851), is a voluminous polemi-
cal book, by a Spanish Priest, in reply to Guizot's
Lectures on Civilization. The Reformation, by G. P.
Fisher, is designed "to present to intelligent and edu-
cated readers the means of acquainting themselves "
with the Reformation, in its various aspects (1 vol.,
1873).
The ivth vol. of Gieseler's Church History (in the
American Edition) is an extremely learned and satisfac
tory account of the Reformation ; but it is adapted to
scholars, and not to the general reader. Hardwick's
History of the Refor?natio7i is likewise intended for
scholars and theologians, and is written by a decided
adherent of the Church of England. The chapters on
the Reformation in Hase's Church History are less
Relating to the Reformation. 243
.scholastic, but are still specially adapted to the theologi-
cal scholar. Waddington's History of the Reformation,
is a carefully written, impartial narrative, of a more
popular character ; but it extends only to the death of
Luther.
III. Works tipon the Reformation in the several coun-
tries, (a) Germany. At the head of the list belongs
Ranke's History of Germany in the Period of the Re-
formation : translated in part, by Sarah Austin, (3 vols.,
1845-47). Michelet's Life of Luther (1 vol.), and Table-
Talk of Luther, are both translated in Bohn's Library.
The Life of Luther by Barnas Sears (8 vo., 1850), is
brief, but founded on an extensive knowledge of the
sources.
[b) Switzerland. Christoffel's Zwingli, or the Rise of
the Reformation in Switzerland, is one of the latest
biographies of the Zurich Reformer. The Life of Cal-
vin, by Beza, translated from the Latin by Gibson
(Philad., 1836), is one of the original documents relating
to the subject. The Life of Calvin by Dyer (1849) *s
accurate and impartial. The most copious and com-
plete of the biographies of Calvin is by Henry, trans-
lated from the- German by Stebbing (3 vols., 1844).
The Letters of Calvin, edited by Bonnet, translated in
2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1856-57), are important. There is
an English translation of all of Calvin's Writings, in
52 vols. (Edinburgh, 1856-57).
(e) Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Dunham, His-
tory of these countries (in Lardner's Cab. Cycl., 1840).
Geijer, History of Sweden, translated by Turner (1845).
(d) Bohemia and Moravia. The Reformation and
Anti-Reformation in Bohemia (2 vols., London, 1845.)
(d) Poland. Krasinski, History af the Reformation in
Poland (2 vols., London, 1840). By the same Author,
244 Notes on Books in English
Sketch of the Religious History of the Slavonic Nations
(Edinburgh, 1851).
(e) France. The chapters, on the Reformation, in
MicheJet's General History of France, are correct and
animatedo The Student's History of France (1 vol.,
8vo., 1862) gives a brief narrative of the Reformation
and the Civil Wars. Ranke's History of France, espe-
cially in the 16th and iyth centuries, is translated in part
under the title, History of Civil Wars and Monarchy in
France, London, 1852. The whole work, like the rest
of the series by Ranke on this era, is masterly. Among
the other valuable works on the French Reformation,
are De Felice, History of French Protestants, translated
by Lobdell (1851). W. S. Browning, History of the
Huguenots in the 16th century (3 vols., 1829-39). [Mrs.
Marsh], History of the Huguenots (2 vols., 1847). Due
D'Aumale, Lives of the Princes of Conde (vol. i. and ii.,
London, 1872). H. White, The Massacre of St. Bar-
tholomew, preceded by a narrative of the religious wars
(London, 1868). This one of the best of the histories
of this period ; it gives interesting details.
(f) Netherlands. Brandt, History of the Reformation
in the Netherlands (4 vols., 4to.). Engl, translation
(London, 1720). Brandt is the learned Arminian histo-
rian. His voluminous work is highly prized by scholars.
Motley, Rise of the Dutch Republic, 3 vols. (New York,
1856). Prescott, History of Philip II. (3 vols., 1855.)
(g) England. The works of the English Reformers
have been published by the Parker Society, in 54 vols.,
with a general index. The general histories of England
treat of the Reformation ; as Macaulay (in his Introduc-
tory Chapter) — also, in his reviews of Ranke, and Hal-
lam ; Hume Lingard, from the Roman Catholic point
of view; Froude, etc. Hallam s Constitutional His tcrx
Relating to the Reformation. 245
is an authority of the first rank on all legal and constitu*
tional questions connected with the rise and progress of
Protestantism in England, and is instructive on collat-
eral points. Burnet's History of the Reformation, is the
work of an honest writer, with extraordinary means of
knowledge, but sometimes swayed by prejudice. The
biographical and historical writings of Strype are of
great value to the student who wishes to make a thor-
ough study of the English Reformation. Massingberd's
History of the English Reformation has passed through
many editions. It is concise. J. H. Blunt, in his His-
tory of the Refo7'7natio7i to the death of IVolsey, 1514-47
(London, 1872) represents the conservative, or High
Church opinions. He bestows much praise upon Wol-
sey and his ideas of Reform. Neal's History of the
Puritans from the Reformation to the death of Queen
Elizabeth, is a learned account of the Reformation from
the Puritan standing-point. Bacon's Genesis of the New
England Churches is a narrative of the rise of Indepen-
dency, and of the migration of the Pilgrims to Ply-
mouth.
(h) Scotland. The History of the Reformation, by John
Knox himself, is one of the principal sources of informa-
tion. Robertson, History of Scotland during the reigns
of Mary and James VI, etc. McCrie's Life of John Knox
is highly instructive. Burton, History of Scotland to 1688.
This is the most recent, and probably the best of the
histories of Scotland. It is full upon the Reformation.
(/) Italy. McCrie's Histoiy of the Reformation in
Italy, is a standard work. M. Young's Life of Paleario
(2 vols., i860) throws light upon the history of Italian
Protestantism.
(/) Spain. McCrie's History of the Refo?'mation in
Spain is the best work on the subject. Prescott's His*
246 Notes on Books Relating to the Reformation.
tory of Philip II. Ticknor's History of Spanish Litera*
ture, and Llorente's History of the Inquisition in Spain,
may be consulted with profit.
In addition to the foregoing titles, may be mentioned
Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent, Ranke's History
of the Popes, Hiibner's Life of Pope Sixtus V., Stein-
metz's History of the Jesuits, Isaac Taylor, Loyola and
Jesuitism iu its Rudiments. These works bear on the
rise and progress of the Catholic Reaction.
publisher's note.
A full list of " Works in general history relating to the Period of
the Reformation," giving the titles in full, will be found in the
History of the Reformation by Prof. Fisher. Those who may
desire to pursue the study of this Era in any particular direction
beyond the limit? indicated above, will find all necessary aid in the
list named.
INDEX.
CAM
ADRIAN VI., 154, i55, i79, 206
Aleander, Papal nuncio, 105,
209, 118, 130
Alexander VI., 24, 26, 37, 73, 78,205
Alsace, see Elsass
Alva, Duke of, 200
America, discovery of, 4
Anne of Cleves, 194
Armadj, the Spanish, 200, 215
Arthur, Prince of Wales, 54, 173
Astrology, 229
Augsburg confession, 169
Augsburg, peace of, 171
Augustine, bt., theology of, 98, 99,
106
B
AMBERG, bishop of, 230
Bavaria, rising of peasants in,
149
Ber'ichingen, see Gotz v
Berne revolts from Rome, 165
Bi'.le, English version of, 185, 192,
221 ; German, 135, 221 ; French,
221
Boheim, Hans, 62
Boleyn, Anne, 180, 184 ; marriage of,
184 ; beheaded, 193
Borgia, Caesar, 24, 26, 73, 75
Bosworth, battle of, 52
Bouibon, Duke of, 155, 157. J79
Buckingham, execution of, 176
B mdschuh, the, 63, 115, "7, 128, 138,
i44
CABOT, Sebastian, 4, 56
Calvin, John, 202, 205 ; influ-
ence of writings of, 221
Cambray, league of, 131
DEN
Campeggio, 180
Capets, dynasty of the, 42
(Jappel, peace of, 165
C ar ffa, cardinal, 212
Carinthia, rising of the peasantry in,
i49, 151
Carlstadt, 136, 137, 141, 142, 145, 14*
Casimir, Markgraf, 146, 148
Catherine of Arragon, 54, 90, 132, 173
174, 175, 176, 180; death of, 193.
Catherine de Medici, 217
Celibacy of the clergy, influence of,
223
Charles V., 30, 39, 103, 113-135, ^54.
155, 166-171, 175, 179, 180, 195, 196,
200, 213
Charles VIII. of France, 26, 37, 46,
Christian II., 199
Christian Prince, of Erasmus, 93, 100
Civilization, character of modern, 5
Clement VII., 155, 160, 179, 206
Colet, John, 78-97, 101, 183, 190, 22a
229
Columbus, 4, 37, 41, 56
Commerce, 3, 18, 21, 233-237
Contarini, Gasper, 207, 208
Contarini, the younger, 212
Copernicus, Nicolas, 232
Cranach, Lucas, 119, 120
Crammer, 184, 193, 197
Criminal law, cruelty of, 230
Cromwell, Oliver, 204
Cromwell, Thomas, 191-193
Crusades, the influence of, 3, 17
DANTE, 23
Denmark, revolt of, from Rome,
199-200
247
248
Index.
GRO
Diets, German, 30 (see Worms,
Spires, Ratisbon)
Dudley (minister of Henry VII.) 82-
84
EDWARD VI., 194
Elizabeth, princess (afterwards
queen), 193
Elsass, rising of peasants in, 63, 149
Empson (^minister of Hcn-y VII.), 83,
84
England under Henry VII., 48-57
76-84; under Henry VIII., 84-92
132-133, 155-156, 171-198
Erasmus, 81-85, 9 $, 100, 101, 103, 104,
no. 113, 134, 153, m~l7&> I9°> 2°7,
226, 229
FERDINAND and Isabella, 4, 27
36,37.88-91,104,174
Feudinand I. of Austria, 170
Feudal system, 16, 20, 29, 31, 233-237
(see Serfdom)
Ficino, 70, 75, 77, 229
Field of the cloth of gold, 133
Fisher, Bishop, sent to the Tower,
187, 207
Flodden, battle of, 90
Florence, 26, 68-76
Forest cantons of Switzerland, 165
France, 41-48, 88-92, 132-135, 154-
157, 169-196, 216-217
Francis I., 28,91, 101, 103, 132, 133,
154-157, 208, 216
Franconia, rebellion of peasants in,
62, 145
Franz von Sickingen, 31, 113-115, 118,
128, 129, 138-140
Frederic of S.txony, 101, 102-135. 138
Frundsberg, General, 125, 151, 155, 157
GALILEO, 233
Genevan reformers, the, 201-
214
Germany 27-35, 59-68, 97-154, 166-
171, 220
Geyer, Florian, 143, 148
Goid mines of new world, effect of
discovery of, 234
Gonsalve de Cordova, 27
Gotz von Eerlichingen, 31, 113, 149
Granada, conquest of, 4, 36
Graubund, the, 63
Grocyn, 81
LUT
Grotius, Hugo, 220
Guicciardini, 24
Gustavus Adolphus,
Gustavus Vasa, 199
ryo
H
ANSE Towns, 18, 33
Helfenstein, Count ron, 143,
145
Henry VII., 52-57, 83-84, 173-174
Henry /III., 27, 28, 44, 82-92, 100-
104, 132-133, 154, 172-199, 220
Heresy, 185-186, 225
Hermann, 162
Hesse, Philip of, 170
Hipler, Wendel, 143
Holy Alliance, the, 88
Howard, Admiral, 90
Howard. Catherine, 195
Huguenots, the, 204-205, 217
Humanists 71, 77, 206
Huss, John, 14, 62, 106, 119, 123, 127
Hutten, Ulrich von, 113- 115, 118-123,
128-130, 138-140
TNDULGENCES, sale of, 100-103
_L Infanta of Portugal, 133, 156, 180
Innocent VIII., 73
' Inquisition,' the, 39, 213, 2T5
Italian reformers, 201-208
Itaiy, 12-27 isee Rome and Popes)
JEROME of Prague, 14
Jesuits, order of, 208—212, 222
Johanna of Castile, 38
Joss Fritz, 64-65, 117, 137-138
Julius II., 27,88-89, 174
KEMPTEN, peasants'
in, 63
Kepler, 233
Knox John, 204-205, 222
rebellion
LAMBERT SIMNEL, 53
Leo X., 27, 89, 100-154,
206
Lilly, 84, 87
Linacre, 81
lollards, 15, 88, 178
Louis XL of France, 43
Louis XII., 27, 88, 91
I oyola. Ignatius, 208-212
Luther, Martin, 97-135, 152, 166,
170, I77, 208, 221, 229, 2jO
[67-
Index.
249
POL
MACHIAVELLI, 19,22, 25, 43,
46, 75, 163
Magellan, 227
Marignano, battle of, gr , 132
Mary, princess, afterwards queen,
x33, 156, 175, 176, 179, 196, 200
Maximilian, emperor, 19, 29, 38, 64,
89, 103
Medici, Cosmo de', 69, 70
Medici, Lorenzo de', 69, 70, 72, 155
Medici, Catherine de', 217
Melanchthon, Philip, 103, 109- 111,
121, 136, 168-169,208, 230
Michael Angelo, 69
Milan 26, 42, 132, 154
Mohammedan power, the, 2, 4, 35
168, 169
Monasteries, dissolution of, 191 192
Moors, in Spain, 2, 4, 35
More, Sir Thomas, 82-97, 172, 176-
178, 186-100, 226, 229
Morgarten, battle of, 61
Morton, Cardinal, 55, 183, 205
Miinzer, 136, 141, 142, 150
NANTES, edict of, 217
Naples, 26, 42, 132
Netherlands, revolt of from Rome,
200, 201
New Testament of Erasmus, 94, 185,
190; of Tindal, see Tiridal
OXFORD Reformers, 76-97, 176
177, 190, 225, {see Colet, Eras-
mus, More)
PARR, Queen Catherine, 195
Pavia, battle of, 155, 179
Paul III., 207, 208, 213
Paul IV., 213
Peasants' war, 140, 152, 177
Peasantry, condition of in England,
50, 233-237 ; in France, 45 and 235,
237 ; in Germany, see Serfdom
Perkin Warbeck, 53
Petrarch, 23
Philip de Commines, 45
Philip II. of Spain, 38, 170, 196,201
214
Pico delta Mirando^, 70, 9 72, 229
Pilgrimage of Grace, 193
Pilgrim fathers, 222, 204-205
Pole, Reginald, 194, 206, 212
Politian, 70
SWI
Popes of Rome, 24-27, 206, and see
Innocent VIII., Alexander VI.,
Julius II., Leo X., Adrian VI.,
Paul III., Paul IV.
' Praise of Folly ' of Erasmus, 85, 101,
"3, 191
' Prince, The,' of Machiavelli, 76
Printing, invention of, 4
Protestants, origin of name of, 168
Puritans, the, 204, 217, 226
RATISBON, Diet of, 169, 208
Revival of learning, 3, 68, 78
Revolts from Rome— in England,
171-198
— in Germany, 166 170
— in Switzerland. 163-166
— in Denmark and Sweden, 199
— in the Netherlands, 200
Richard III., 52-53
Rohrbach, little Jack, 144
Roman Catholic Church, 8
Roman civilization, 6
Rome, 8,22-27 ; sack of, 154-156
Roper, Margaret, 187
Kothenburg, peasants' war at, 146-
149
SICKINGEN, see Franz
St. Bartholomew, massacre of,
217
St. Paul's school, founded by Colet, 86
Savonarola Girolamo, 72-75, 78, 121,
222
Saxony. John of, 167, 169
Schmalkalden, league of, 169, J70
Scientific inquiry, beginnings of, 237
Scientific knowledge. 227
Scholastic system, the, 12-16, 77
Serfdom in Germany, 20, 33-4, 58-64
i4o-T53, 231
Serfdom in France, 20, 45-47, 234
Serfdom in England, 20, 234-236
Servetus, 203, 226
Slavery and slave trade, 41
Spain, 35-41, 214-215, and see Charles
Spalatin, 109, no, 115, 122, 123
Spires, 1 'iets of, 156, 157, 167 168
Spurs, battle of the, 90
Storch, Claus, 136, 137, 142
Swabia, insurrection of peasants in,
I4I-I43
Swabian league, the, 66, 141-143
Sweden, revolt from Rome of, 199-201
Switzerland, 61, 163
250
Index.
VAL
TETZEL, 102
Thirty Years' War, 167, 171,
200, 216
Thuringia, insurrection of peasants
in, 150
Tindall, William, 185, 193, 222
Trent, Council of, 208, 212-214
Truchsesa, George, 143, 145, 151
Tycho Brahe, 233
Tyrol, rising of peasants in the, 151-
152
ULRICH VON HUTTEN, see
Hutten
Ulrich, D., of Wiirtemberg, 66
United Provinces, th>% 201
Universe, ideas of the, 228
Universities, 14
Universities of England visited and
reformed, 192
Utopia, More's, 94, 96, 100, 172, 185
226
VALDEZ, JUAN DE, 60. 157, 206
Valdez, Alphonse de. secretary
of Charles V., 131
ZWI
Vasco de Gama,' 4
Venice, 25
Vienna besieged by the Turks, 168
VyARTBURG, castle of the, 130,
Wcinsburg, the piper of, 143-146
Wiclif, 14, 62, 106
Witchcraft, belief in, 230
Wi tenbeig Reformers (see Luther
and Melanchthon)
Wolsey, 89, 92, 154, 155, 178-184, 197,
205
Worms, Diet of, 115-135, 156, 167, 169,
170, 172
XAVIER, FRANCIS, 210
Ximenes, cardinal, 39, 154,
205
ZURICH revolts from Rome, i6f
Zwickau, prophets of, 136-
*37
Zwingle, Uirich, 164-165, 202
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Independent.
" Marked by thorough and comprehensive scholarship and
by a skillful style." — Congregationalist.
"It would be hard to find a more creditable book. The
author's prefatory remarks upon the origin and growth of
Greek civilization are alone worth the price of the volume."
— Christian Union.
EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY
THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE-From the Flight
of Xerxes to the Fall of Athens. By Rev.
G. W. Cox.
"Mr. Cox writes in such a way as to bring before the
reader everything which is important to be known or learned;
and his narrative cannot fail to give a good idea of the men
and deeds with which he is concerned." — The Churchman.
"Mr. Cox has done his work with the honesty of a true
student. It shows persevering scholarship and a desire to
get at the truth." — New York Herald.
THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMA-
CIES. By Charles Sankey, M.A.
" This volume covers the period between the disasters of
Athens at the close of the Pelopenesian war and the rise of
Macedon. It is a very striking and instructive picture of the
political life of the Grecian commonwealth at that time." —
The Churchman.
"It is singularly interesting to read, and in respect to
arrangement, maps, etc., is all that can be desired." — Boston
Congregationalist .
THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE— Its Rise and
Culmination to Death of Alexander the
Great. By A. M. Curteis, M.A.
"A good and satisfactory history of a very important period.
The maps are excellent, and the story is lucidly and vigor-
ously told. " — The Nation.
" The same compressive style and yet completeness of
detail that have characterized the previous issues in this
delightful series, are found in this volume. Certainly the art
of conciseness in writing was never carried to a higher or
more effective point." — Boston Saturday Evening Gazette.
*% The above Jive volumes give a connected and complete
history of Greece from the earliest times to the death of
A lexander.
EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY
EARLY ROME— From the Foundation of the
City to its Destruction by the Gauls. By
W. IHNE, Ph.D.
" Those who want to know the truth instead of the tra-
ditions that used to be learned of our fathers, will find in the
work entertainment, careful scholarship, and sound sense." —
Cincinnati Times.
" The book is excellently well done. The views are those
of a learned and able man, and they are presented in this
volume with great force and clearness." — The Nation.
ROME AND CARTHAGE-The Punic Wars.
By R. Bosworth Smith.
" By blending the account of Rome and Carthage the ac-
complished author presents a succinct and vivid picture of
two great cities and people which leaves a deep impression.
The story is full of intrinsic interest, and was never better
told." — Christian Union.
" The volume is one of rare interest and value." — Chicago
Interior.
"An admirably condensed history of Carthage, from its
establishment by the adventurous Phoenician traders to its
sad and disastrous fall." — New York Herald.
THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SULLA. By
A. H. Beesley.
" A concise and scholarly historical sketch, descriptive of
the decay of the Roman Republic, and the events which paved
the way for the advent of the conquering Caesar. It is an
excellent account of the leaders and legislation of the repub-
lic."— Boston Post.
" It is prepared in succinct but comprehensive style, and is
an excellent book for reading and reference." — New York
Observer.
" No better condensed account of the two Gracchi and the
turbulent careers of Marius and Sulla has yet appeared." —
New York Independent.
EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY
THE ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES. By the Very Rev.
Charles Merivale, D.D.
" In brevity, clear and scholarly treatment of the subject,
and the convenience of map, index, and side notes, the
volume is a model." — New York Tribune.
" An admirable presentation, and in style vigorous and
picturesque. " — Hartford Courant.
THE EARLY EMPIRE— From the Assassina-
tion of Julius Caesar to the Assassination
of Domitian. By Rev. W. Wolfe Capes, MA.
" It is written with great clearness and simplicity of style,
and is as attractive an account as has ever been given in
brief of one of the most interesting periods of Roman
History." — Boston Saturday Evening Gazette.
"It is a clear, well-proportioned, and trustworthy perfor-
mance, and well deserves to be studied." — Christian at
Work.
THE AGE OF THE ANTONINES— The Roman
Empire of the Second Century. By Rev.
W. Wolfe Capes, M.A.
" The Roman Empire during the second century is the
broad subject discussed in this book, and discussed with
learning and intelligence." — New York Independent.
" The writer's diction is clear and elegant, and his narra-
tion is free from any touch of pedantry. In the treatment of
its prolific and interesting theme, and in its general plan, the
book is a model of works of its class." — New York Herald.
"We are glad to commend it. It is written clearly, and
with care and accuracy. It is also in such neat and compact
form as to be the more attractive." — Congregationalist.
*** The above six volumes give the History of Rome from
the founding of the City to the death of Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus.
EPOCHS OF MODERN
HISTORY.
A SERIES OF BOOKS NARRATING THE HISTORY OF
ENGLAND AND EUROPE AT SUCCESSIVE EPOCHS
SUBSEQUENT TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
Edited by
Edward E. Morris.
Eighteen volumes, i6mo, with 74 Maps, Plans, and Tables.
Sold separately. Price per vol., $1.00.
The Set, Roxburgh style, gilt top, in box, $18.00.
THE BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE AGES-
England and Europe in the Ninth Century.
By the Very Rev. R. W. Church, M.A.
"A remarkably thoughtful and satisfactory discussion of
the causes and results of the vast changes which came upon
Europe during the period discussed. The book is adapted to
be exceedingly serviceable." — Chicago Standard.
"At once readable and valuable. It is comprehensive and
yet gives the details of a period most interesting to the student
of history." — Herald and Presbyter.
"It is written with a clearness and vividness of statement
which make it the pleasantest reading. It represents a great
deal of patient research, and is careful and scholarly." —
Boston Journal.
THE NORMANS IN EUROPE— The Feudal
System and England under the Norman
Kings. By Rev. A. H. Johnson, M.A.
" Its pictures of the Normans in their home, of the Scan-
dinavian exodus, the conquest of England, and Norman
administration, are full of vigor and cannot fail of holding the
reader's attention." — Episcopal Register.
" The style of the author is vigorous and animated, and he
has given a valuable sketch of the origin and progress of the
great Northern movement that has shaped the history of
modern Europe." — Boston Transcript.
EPOCHS OF MODERN1 HISTORY
THE CRUSADES. By Rev. G. W. Cox.
" To be warmly commended for important qualities. The
author shows conscientious fidelity to the materials, and such
skill in the use of them, that, as a result, the reader has
before him a narrative related in a style that makes it truly
fascinating. ' ' — Congregationalist.
"It is written in a pure and flowing style, and its arrange-
ment and treatment of subject are exceptional." — Christian
Intelligencer.
THE EARLY P LA N TAG E N ETS— Their
Relation to the History of Europe; The
Foundation and Growth of Constitutional
Government. By Rev. W. Stubbs, M.A.
"Nothing could be desired more clear, succinct, and well
arranged. All parts of the book are well done. It may be
pronounced the best existing brief history of the constitution
for this, its most important period." — The Nation.
" Prof. Stubbs has presented leading events with such fair-
ness and wisdom as are seldom found. He is remarkably
clear and satisfactory." — The Churchman.
EDWARD III. By Rev. W. Warburton, M.A.
" The author has done his work well, and we commend it
as containing in small space all essential matter." — New York
Independent.
" Events and movements are admirably condensed by the
author, and presented in such attractive form as to entertain
as well as instruct." — Chicago Interior.
THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK
—The Conquest and Loss of France. By
James Gairdner.
" Prepared in a most careful and thorough manner, and
ought to be read by every student." — New York Times.
"It leaves nothing to be desired as regards. compactness,
accuracy, and excellence of literary execution." — Boston
Journal.
EPOCHS OF MODERX HISTORY
THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVO-
LUTION. By Frederic Seebohm. With Notes, on
Books in English relating to the Reformation, by Prof.
George P. Fisher, D.D.
"For an impartial record of the civil and ecclesiastical
changes about four hundred years ago, we cannot commend a
better manual." — Sunday- School Times.
"All that could be desired, as well in execution as in plan.
The narrative is animated, and the selection and grouping of
events skillful and effective." — The Nation.
THE EARLY TUDORS- Henry VII., Henry
VIII. By Rev. C. E. Moberley, M.A., late Master in
Rugby School.
"Is concise, scholarly, and accurate. On the epoch of which
it treats, we know of no work which equals it." — N. Y. Observer.
" A marvel of clear and succinct brevity and good historical
judgment. There is hardly a better book of its kind to be
named." — New York Independent.
THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. By Rev. M.
Creighton, M.A.
"Clear and compact in style ; careful in their facts, and
just in interpretation of them. It sheds much light on the
progress of the Reformation and the origin of the Popish
reaction during Queen Elizabeth's reign ; also, the relation of
Jesuitism to the latter." — Presbyterian Review.
" A clear, concise, and just story of an era crowded with
events of interest and importance." — New York World.
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR- 1 61 8- 1 648.
By Samuel Rawson Gardiner.
" As a manual it will prove of the greatest practical value,
while to the general reader it will afford a clear and interesting
account of events. We know of no more spirited and attractive
recital of the great era." — Boston Saturday Evening Gazette.
" The thrilling story of those times has never been told so
vividly or succinctly as in this volume." — Episcopal Register.
EPOCHS OF MOVER. V III STORY.
THE PURITAN REVOLUTION ; and the First
Two Stuarts, 1603-1660. By Samuel Rawson
Gardiner.
" The narrative is condensed and brief, yet sufficiently com-
prehensive to give an adequate view of the events related."
— Chicago Standard*
" Mr. Gardiner uses his researches in an admirably deal
and fair way." — Congregationalisi.
" The ketch concise, but clear ami perfectly intelligible."
—Hartford Courant.
THE ENGLISH RESTORATION AND LOUIS
XIV., from the Peace of Westphalia to the
Peace of Nimwegen. By Osmund Airy, m.a.
" It is crisply and admirably written. An immense amount
of information is conveyed and with great clearness, the
arrangement of the subjects showing great skill and a thor-
ough command of the complicated theme." — Boston Saturday
Evening Gazette,
"The author writes with fairness and discrimination, and
has given a clear and intelligible presentation of the time." —
New York Evangelist.
THE FALL OF THE STUARTS; and Western
Europe. By Rev. Edward Hale, m.a.
" A valuable compend to the general reader and scholar."
— Providence Journal.
"It will be found of great value. It is a very graphic
account of the history of Europe during the 17th century,
and is admirably adapted for the use of students." — Boston
Saturday Evening Gazette.
"An admirable handbook for the student. " — The Churchman,
THE AGE OF ANNE. By Edward E. Morris, M.A.
"The author's arrangement of the material is remarkably
clear, his selection and adjustment of the facts judicious, his
historical judgment fair and candid, while the style wins by
its simple elegance." — Chicago Standard.
"An excellent compendium of the history of an important
period. " — The Watchman.
EPOCHS OF MODERN HISTORY.
THE EARLY HANOVERI ANS-Europe from
the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Aix-
Ia-Chapelle. By Edward E. Morris, M.A.
11 Masterly, condensed, and vigorous, this is one of the
books which it is a delight to read at odd moments ; which
are broad and suggestive, and at the same time condensed in
treatment. " — Christian Advocate.
" A remarkably clear and readable summary of the salient
points of interest. The maps and tables, no less than the
author's style and treatment of the subject, entitle the volume
to the highest claims of recognition."— Boston Daily Ad-
vertiser.
FREDERICK THE GREAT, AND THE SEVEN
YEARS' WAR. By F. w. Longman.
"The subject is most important, and the author has treated
it in a way which is both scholarly and entertaining." — The
Churchman.
"Admirably adapted to interest school boys, and older
heads will find it pleasant reading." — New York Tribune.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, AND FIRST
EMPIRE. By William O'Connor Morris. With
Appendix by ANDREW D. White, I.L.D., ex-President of
Cornell University.
" We have long needed a simple compendium of this period,
and we have here one which is brief enough to be easily run
through with, and yet particular enough to make entertaining
reading." — New York Evening Post.
"The author has well accomplished his difficult task of
sketching in miniature the grand and crowded drama of the
French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, showing
himself to be no servile compiler, but capable of judicious
and independent criticism." — Springfield Rcpublica>i.
THE EPOCH OF REFORM— 1 830- 1 850. By
Justin McCarthy.
" Mr. McCarthy knows the period of which he writes
thoroughly, and the result is a narrative that is at once enter-
taining and trustworthy." — New York Examiner.
" The narrative is clear and comprehensive, and told with
abundant knowledge and grasp of the subject." — Boston
Courier.
IMPORTANT HISTORICAL
WORKS.
THE DAWN OF HISTORY. An Introduction
to Pre-Historic Study. New and Enlarged Edition.
Edited by C. F. Keary. i2mo, cloth, $1.25.
This work treats successively of the earliest traces of man ;
of language, its growth, and the story it tells of the pre-his-
toric users of it ; of early social life, the religions, mythologies,
and folk-tales, and of the history of writing. The present
edition contains about one hundred pages of new matter,
embodying the results of the latest researches.
"A fascinating manual. In its way, the work is a model
of what a popular scientific work should be." — Boston Sat.
Eve. Gazette.
THE ORIGIN OF NATIONS. By Professor George
Rawlinson, M.A. i2mo, with maps, $1.00.
The first part of this book discusses the antiquity of civiliza-
tion in Egypt and the other early nations of the East. The
second part is an examination of the ethnology of Genesis,
showing its accordance with the latest results of modern
ethnographical science.
"A work of genuine scholarly excellence, and a useful
offset to a great deal of the superficial current literature on
such subjects. " — Congregationalist.
MANUAL OF MYTHOLOGY. For the Use
of Schools, Art Students, and General
Readers. Founded on the Works of Pet-
iscus, Preller, and Welcker. By Alexander
S. Murray, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities,
British Museum. With 45 Plates. Reprinted from the
Second Revised London Edition. Crown 8vo, $1.75.
" It has been acknowledged the best work on the subject
to be found in a concise form, and as it embodies the results
of the latest researches and discoveries in ancient mythologies,
it is superior for school and general purposes as a handbook
to any of the so-called standard works." — Cleveland Herald.
" Whether as a manual for reference, a text-book for school
use, or for the general reader, the book will be found very
valuable and interesting." — Boston Journal.
IMPORTANT HISTORICAL WORKS.
THE HISTORY OF ROME, from the Earliest
Time to the Period of Its Decline. By Dr.
Theodor MoMMSEN. Translated by W. P. Dickson, D.D.,
LL. D. Reprinted from the Revised London Edition. Four
volumes, crown 8vo. Price per set, $8.00.
"A work of the very highest merit ; its learning is exact
and profound ; its narrative full of genius and skill ; its
descriptions of men are admirably vivid." — London Times.
"Since the days of Niebuhr, no work on Roman History
has appeared that combines so much to attract, instruct, and
charm the reader. Its style — a rare quality in a German
author — is vigorous, spirited, and animated." — Dr. Schmitz.
THE PROVINCES OFTHE ROMAN EMPIRE.
From Caesar to Diocletian. By Theodor
Mommsen. Translated by William P. Dickson, D.D.,
LL.D. With maps. Two vols., 8vo, $6.00.
" The author draws the wonderfully rich and varied picture
of the conquest and administration of that great circle of
peoples and lands which formed the empire of Rome outside
of Italy, their agriculture, trade, and manufactures, their
artistic and scientific life, through all degrees of civilization,
with such detail and completeness as could have come from
no other hand than that of this great master of historical re-
search."— Prof. W. A. Packard, Princeton College.
THE HISTORY OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Abridged from the History by Professor Theodor Mommsen,
by C. Bryans and F. J. R. Hendy. i2mo, $1.75.
" It is a genuine boon that the essential parts of Mommsen's
Rome are thus brought within the easy reach of all, and the
abridgment seems to me to preserve unusually well the glow
and movement of the original." — Prof. Tracy Peck, Yale
University.
"The condensation has been accurately and judiciously
effected. I heartily commend the volume as the most adequate
embodiment, in a single volume, of the main results of modern
historical research in the field of Roman affairs." — Prof.
Henry M. Baird, University of City of New York.
IMPORTANT HISTORICAL WORKS.
THE HISTORY OF GREECE. By Prof. Dr.
Ernst Curtius. Translated by Adolphus William Ward,
M.A., Fellow of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, Prof, of
History in Owen's College, Manchester. Five volumes,
crown 8vo. Price per set, $10.00.
" We cannot express our opinion of Dr. Curtius' book bet-
ter than by saying that it may be fitly ranked with Theodor
Mommsen's great work." — London Spectator.
"As an introduction to the study of Grecian history, no
previous work is comparable to the present for vivacity and
picturesque beauty, while in sound learning and accuracy of
statement it is not inferior to the elaborate productions which
enrich the literature of the age." — A". Y. Daily Tribune.
C/ESAR: a Sketch. By James Anthony Froude,
M.A. 121110, gilt top, $1.50.
" This book is a most fascinating biography and is by far
the best account of Julius Csesar to be found in the English
language." — The London Standard.
" He combines into a compact and nervous narrative all
that is known of the personal, social, political, and military
life of Cxsar ; and with his sketch of Caesar includes other
brilliant sketches of the great man, his friends, or rivals,
who contemporaneously with him formed the principal figures
in the Roman world." — Harper s Monthly.
CICERO- Life of Marcus Tullius Cicero. By
William Forsyth, M.A., Q.C. 20 Engravings. New
Edition. 2 vols., crown 8vo, in one, gilt top, $2.50.
The author has not only given us the most complete and
well-balanced account of the life of Cicero ever published ;
he has drawn an accurate and graphic picture of domestic life
among the best classes of the Romans, one which the reader
of general literature, as well as the student, may peruse with
pleasure and profit.
"A scholar without pedantry, and a Christian without cant,
Mr. Forsyth seems to have seized with praiseworthy tact the
precise attitude which it behooves a biographer to take when
narrating the life, the personal life of Cicero. Mr. Forsyth
produces what we venture to say will become one of the
classics of English biographical literature, and will be wel-
comed by readers of all ages and both sexes, of all professions
and of no profession at all." — London Quarterly.
VALUABLE WORKS ON
CLASSICAL LITERATURE.
THE HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE.
From the Earliest Period to the Death of
MarCUS AureliuS. With Chronological Tables, etc.,
for the use of Students. By C. T. Cruttwell, M. A. Crown
8vo, $2.50.
Mr. Cruttwell's book is written throughout from a purely
literary point of view, and the aim has been to avoid tedious
and trivial details. The result is a volume not only suited
for the student, but remarkably readable for all who possess
any interest in the subject.
" Mr. Cruttwell has given us a genuine history of Roman
literature, not merely a descriptive list of authors and their
productions, but a well elaborated portrayal of the successive
stages in the intellectual development of the Romans and the
various forms of expression which these took in literature." —
N. Y. X a I ion.
i \\ 'I FORM J VI Til THE ABOVE.
A HISTORY OF GREEK LITERATURE.
From the Earliest Period of Demosthenes.
By Frank BYRON JEVONS, M.A., Tutor in the University
of Durham. Crown 8vo, $2.50.
The author goes into detail with sufficient fullness to make
the history complete, but he never loses sight of the com-
manding lines along which the Greek mind moved, and a
clear understanding of which is necessary to every intelligent
student of universal literature.
"It is beyond all question the best history of Greek litera-
ture that has hitherto been published." — London Spectator.
" With such a book as this within reach there is no reason
why any intelligent English reader may not get a thorough
and comprehensive insight into the spirit of Greek literature,
of its historic development, and of its successive and chief
masterpieces, which are here so finely characterized, analyzed,
and criticised." — Chicago Advance.
TRANSLATIONS OF PLATO.
THE DIALOGUES OF PLATO. Translated
into English, with Analysis and Introduc-
tions. By B. Jowett, M.A., Master of Balliol College,
Oxford. A new and cheaper edition. Four vols., crown 8vo,
per set, $8.00.
" The present work of Professor Jowett will be welcomed
with profound interest, as the only adequate endeavor to
transport the most precious monument of Grecian thought
among the familiar treasures of English literature. The
noble reputation of Professor Jowett, both as a thinker and a
scholar, is a valid guaranty for the excellence of his perfor-
mance."— New York Tribune.
SOCRATES. A Translation of the Apology,
Crito, and parts of the Phaedo of Plato.
Containing the Defence of Socrates at his Trial, his Conver-
sation in Prison, with his Thoughts on the Future Life, and
an Account of his Death. With an Introduction by Professor
\V. W. Goodwin, of Harvard College. i2mo, cloth, $1.00 ;
paper, 50 cents.
TALKS WITH SOCRATES ABOUT LIFE.
Translations from the Gorgias and the
Republic Of PlatO. i2mo, cloth, $1.00; paper, 50
cents.
A DAY IN ATHENS WITH SOCRATES.
Translations from the Protagoras and the
Republic Of PlatO. Being conversations between
Socrates and other Greeks on Virtue and Justice. i2mo,
cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents.
"Eminent scholars, men of much Latin and more Greek,
attest the skill and truth with which the versions are made ;
we can confidently speak of their English grace and clearness.
They seem a ' model of style,' because they are without
manner and perfectly simple." — W. D. Howells.
"We do not remember any translation of a Greek author
which is a better specimen of idiomatic English than this, or
a more faithful rendering of the real spirit of the original
into English as good and as simple as the Greek." — New York
Evening Post.
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,
743 and 745 Broadway, New York.
K 7 16
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